Japanese agricultural cooperatives at crossroads: a review

Structure of Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives:

 

The aims of this paper are to review the development

JA has a three tier hierarchical structure (Fig. 1) which

of agricultural cooperatives in Japan and examine their

corresponds to the national political administrative

current status in the context of the evolving economic

structure

of

municipal,

prefectural

and

national

order in Japan. This study is based on desktop research

government.

The

basic

three-tier

structure

was

and analysis of secondary data obtained from the annual

established in the mid 1950s [4]. The basic unit consists

statistics on multi-purpose agricultural co-operatives

of the primary cooperatives operating at

the local

published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and

levels such as city and village. The primary cooperatives

Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan.

are of two types; multipurpose and special cooperatives.