The cooperative movement is a worldwide phenomenon. Cooperatives still form a relatively small sector in the Japanese economy, but they are by no means small potatoes. Modern cooperatives typically attempt to extend Western democratic traditions to the workplace. They trace their ancestry back to the first consumer cooperative formed in Rochdale, England in 1844. Cooperatives can be seen as an attempt to create what is in effect an entirely new economic system that is neither capitalist nor communist.
Cooperatives are essentially organizations that are owned and managed by their members.
As a result cooperatives are generally able to provide producers with higher incomes and consumers with lower costs. And because the members are themselves also the managers of the organization, there is more active participation and less alienation than in more traditionally structured organizations. While cooperatives offer freedoms, however, they also involve responsibilities. Members are expected to actively contribute to the life of the organization by helping with its administration and work. It is increasingly clear that thoughtless industrialism and consumerism are at the root of many contemporary social and environmental problems.