Alternatives

Introduce alternative activities in Japan, such as activities creating a positive circle for communities, workers collectives, community currencies, multicultural societies, cooperatives and female farmer enterpreneurships.

The Achievement and Challenges of Co-op by INOUE, Reiko

Maruyama Shigeki, at the PARC Solidarity Economy Research meeting on April 15, 2007, gave an overview of the achievements as well as problems encountered by the Japanese Consumers Cooperative Union since the 1970s.

Women's Initiatives in Community Business --- A Case From the Agricultural Sector by Reiko Inoue

Potential forces for Solidarity Economy in Japan include consumer cooperatives, worker collectives, NPOs providing social services to the aged, handicapped, and sick, and mutual pension and insurance systems. But these are still only potential forces because each activity has a different background and though they are responding to needs arising from the same economic policies of neo - liberalism there is lack cooperation. By successfully introducing the concept of a social economy in which various groups fulfilling different roles cooperate and complement each other, it should be possible to conquer the present economic difficulties --- typically referred to as the gap between the rich and the poor --- and creat the dynamis needed for an alternative society.

Solidarity with the South through Fair Trade

It was in 1993 that Ms. Haruyo Tsuchiya started Nepali Bazaro. The office was her home and she dealt single-handedly with sales, development and production cooperating with Nepali producers. Accounting, order and customer management were handled by her partner, Kanji Ushikubo, between his other jobs.