Agricultural Cooperatives: the Nokyo System

Every town or village has its cooperatives (Nokyo). In all Japanese towns two types of cooperatives exist. There are multipurpose cooperatives (4300 in 1985) providing banking, insurance, welfare services, agricultural inputs, and general household necessities to all member farm households, as well as those ‘single purpose’ cooperatives (about 5000) comprising producers according to their sectoral specialization (vegetables, fruits, dairying, beef cattle, pig fattening, poultry, sericulture, etc.). All are organized in about 700 prefectural federations (see Figure 4.1), the functions of which increase with the growing sophistication and diversity of members’ demands (especially in non-agricultural matters) on their cooperative. At prefectural level these federations also have their proper union to facilitate coordination of activities and policies.