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This article aims to introduce and examine the experiments of workers' collectives in Astugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The project of workers' collective in Atsugi began in 1982 through the initiatives of 128 women. It has progressively expanded its networks, based on 'civic capital', i.e. the capital financed by local citizens for the citizens' sake. The evolution of these movements is now conceived of as a history of 'the cooperative process of organizing people's basic conditions of living'. In what follows, I introduce the trajectory of several cases of the workers' collectives in Atsugi city and evaluate them in light of the empowerment of local civil society.
1: The Structure of Atsugi City and the Origin of the Local Workers' Collectives Projects
Atsugi City is a local city with 220,000 populations, which is located in the centre of Kanagawa Prefecture in the Kanto area of Japan. The city accommodates the famous Tomei highway interchange, while surrounded by an excellent natural environment including four A-level rivers and wide land areas. It has long since attracted corporations and research institutes. Eventually the local government has benefited from a high amount of corporate tax and its fiscal conditions have always performed better than other comparative local municipalities, with its annual fiscal index ranked within top 10.
In Japan, it is commonly observed that civic activities are carried out by non-local citizens and women. However, the case of Atsugi undermines this common sense. The main actors of workers' collectives in Atsugi are the highly localised residents, i.e. the wives who were newly settled down to the city with their families.
In addition, Atsugi is the municipality whose average population age is much younger than those of other local municipalities in Japan. According to the statistics in 2005, the aging rate of Atsugi city is 14.6% and the average age of the local population is 37.8. However, the population growth has stagnated after 2002 and it is estimated that the city becomes an aging community in a couple of years.
Another point to be remarked is the inconvenience of the cityfs transportation system. Atsugi used to be a place where universities in the Tokyo area constructed new campuses. However, after a few years of installation, they decided resettlement to another cities, due to the inconvenience of transportation. For, Atsugi, despite its large territory, has only two train stations, both of which are located at the far end of the city. The residents usually rely on local buses for their everyday activities. To be worse, however, the local bus networks are often involved in chronicle traffic jams.
Therefore, the first objective of workers' collectives was to introduce the transportation services for elderly or disabled people.
2: The Trajectory of Workers' Collectives Movements
The project of workers' collectives in Atsugi has developed in several phases. This section briefly enlists 18 projects in a chronological order.
(1) The Preparation for the 'Seikatsu (Life) Club Cooperatives' Atsugi Branch (1982)
In 1982, the eAtsugi Seikatsu Club Cooperativesf was formed by 128 members who moved from Yokohama.
(2) The Commencement of Civic Politics (1986)
A civic politics network was organised in Atsugi as part of the grand Kanagawa network movements initiated by the Seikatsu Club Cooperatives.
(3) The Commencement of Civic Enterprises: The Foundation of 'Sachi', a House Holding & Care Management Workers Collective (1990)
The workersf collective eSachif is founded by the Atsugi Seikatsu Club, in response to the need for the care management of children and the elderly people. This workersf collective was well received among the cooperative members who needed to look after their children whilst working outside.
(4) The Participation of Workers Collectives to Public Welfare Policies (1993)
With a cooperation of the local government, the Seikatsu Club Cooperative introduced an in-house care management centre for the elderly people in Atsugi. This was a pioneering enterprise in Japan at that time.
(5) The Foundation of the Nursery School 'Crayon', a Workers' Collectives aimed for the care management of disabled children (1997)
The workersf collective eCrayonf was introduced as an unauthorised nursery school. In the course of activities, this initiative specialised their target in supporting the care of the disabled children, which was not practised by many authorised nursery schools in the city.
(6) The Foundation of 'Sumire' (Violet), a Delivery Workers Collectives, and the Preparation for the Foundation of Welfare Club Cooperatives (1997)
(7) The Foundation of the recycling shop 'WE' (1998)
Inspired by the UK-born fair trade NGO eOxfamf, the Seikatsu Club Cooperatives introduced a NGO shop eWEf. The eWEf is a recycling shop which aims to support the self-reliance and autonomy of women in the Asian region. The eWEf shop has more than 55 branches in Kanagawa prefecture and the Atsugi branch performs the top sales record.
(8) The Installation of 'Service House Popolo' through an initiative of NPO 'MOMO' (2000)
In 2000, the NPO eMomof, named after Michael Endefs renowned novel, was founded. In aiming at consolidating local social capital, this NPO introduced the eService House Popolof, a senior housing service centre. Normally in Japan, senior houses are constructed in unpopulated cosy suburbs. However this often causes a feeling of isolation to the elderly people. As opposed to this prevailing tendency, the Service House Popolo was constructed in the town centre so that the elderly people in need of care communicated with their families and friends on a daily basis. As a policy, ePopolof does not discriminate people who need care. It accepts any people regardless of their ages and disability. It has a capacity to accommodate 40 people, in addition to two short stay rooms and one daily service centre.
(9) The Workers' Collective 'Carry Joy' becomes a NPO (2001)
eCarry Joyf had been a workersf collective that was part of the care centre Asahi. However, in response to the growing needs, it became an independent NPO in 2001. eCarry Joyf offers transportation services for the elderly and disabled people.
(10) The Foundation of 'Donguri' (Acorn), a Workers' Collective for the Care of Primary School Children (2000-2002)
The workersf collective eDongurif was introduced in 2000 near the Iiyama primary school, where the childcare centre was absent. However, in 2002, the local government introduced a new policy to install the childcare centre in every primary school and eDongurif closed its service.
(11) The Foundation of 'Tobio', a House Holding & Care Management Workersf Collective (2000)
A new house holding and care management workersf collective was introduced in the Tobio residential area. This is because, due to the scale of the city, the residents in Atsugi needed other care management initiatives than "Sachi".
(12) The Foundation of 'Ohisamaf (Sunshine), a Workers' Collective for the Care of Primary School Children (2000-2002)
(13) The Installation of 'Anzu' (Apricot), a Workersf Collectives for Chinese Herbal Medicines (2002)
(14) The Foundation of the authorised nursery school 'ViVi' through the initiative of NPO 'Kodomo Mirai Juku' (the Learning Centre for the Future of Children) (2003)
In July 2000, the case of child abusing was found in an unauthorised baby hotel eSmile Momf in Yamato city, the Nara prefecture. Following this incident, the national government reinforced the regulation and surveillance on unauthorised nursery schools. In response to this, the NPO eKodomo Mirai Jukuf introduced an authorised nursery school, "Vivi".
(15) The Foundation of "Nanairo-no-Tane" (a Seed of Seven Colours), a Workers' Collective for Child Welfare (2003)
In 2003, eKodomo Mirai Jukuf introduced an authorised child welfare centre, eNanairo-no-Tanef. This child welfare centre aims to help the primary school children to learn various skills of living outside the school, including foreign languages, science, music and cooking. eNanairo-no-Tanef is a small scale child welfare centre and only accommodates 25 children as of 2005.
(16) The Foundation of NPO 'Centre for Cultural Diversity and Friends' (2004)
This NPO was founded in 2004 in aiming at teaching Japanese language to non-Japanese residents, especially the housewives of foreign origin. In addition, this learning centre provides the lesson for English, Chinese, and Korean languages and attracts Japanese students as well.
(17) The Foundation of 'Ton Ton', a Daily Care Service for Disabled Children (2004)
eTon Tonf, a daily care service for disabled children, was introduced by eKodomo Mirai Centref (The Centre for the Future of Children). This workersf collective aims to provide in-depth services for the heavily disabled children.
(18) The Foundation of 'Minna no Te' (the Hands of Everyone), a Workers Collective for House Holding and Care Management (2005)
3: Why Do We Continue to Work on Civic Enterprises?
(1) Discovering Needs Through the Initiatives of Citizens
One of the reasons for continuing these civic enterprises is that it is difficult to carry out the citizen-oriented social policies from the perspectives of local administration alone. Just as citizens know their daily needs better than municipal officers, so the solutions should be invented and practised by those citizens. This strategy of aggregating social demands at the grassroots level leads the national and local governments to formulate social policies that are truly fitted into the context of local civil society.
(2) Constructing a Gender-balanced Working Condition
Another reason is that there has been a lasting problem with regard to the improvement of gender-equality in local society. It is certain that the past activities of Seikatsu Club Cooperatives had successfully organised the communal management of products whilst simultaneously stimulating various non-economic activities including environmental activities (e.g. recycling), peace movements, and the locally based mutual aid. They did not, however, improve gender-equality in house holding and working place. In Japan, women are always condemned to choose either working or child-bearing. Once they choose child-bearing, it is extremely difficult for them to return to working place. So it has been an urgent need to provide a cooperative system for supporting housewivesf social activities, by introducing child welfare centres.
4: Expanding Cooperative Activities: the Role of eHuman Support Network Atsugif
The aforementioned civic enterprises in Atsugi city have supported various forms of civic activities and enterprises in other local municipalities. They have provided their methods of civic financing and staff training as well as those of management. In addition, they offer financial support to civic activities outside Atsugi and consolidate a network of inter-regional cooperative activities. The followings are the examples of inter-regional cooperation.
?In 2003, the NPO eMomof (Atsugi) introduced the daily service centre eYamabikof in Aoba-ku in Yokohama City.
?In 2003, eMomof founded the eService House Popolo Nakayamaf in Midori-ku, Yokomaha City. It also founded eDay Aikouharaf in the highly aged residential area in Isehara City.
?In 2004, the NPO eAssociation for Rich Local Welfaref was introduced in Odawara by the finance from the NPO eMomof. It founded the daily service centre eHot Station Midorif.
? In 2004, eMomof founded a collective housing in Aoba-ku, Yokohama City. Then, an authorised nursery school was introduced to the first floor of this collective housing through the initiative of the NPO ePippi Oyako Support Netf which was founded through an initiative of eKodomo Mirai Jukuf.
? In 2006, eDay Aikouharaf became an independent organisation and founded a small-scale multi-function centre eKaze-no-Okaf (Wind hills).
? In 2006, the day service centre eAnonf was introduced in Chigasaki, through the financial support from the NPO eMomof.
Today, the NPOs, workersf collectives, the NGO shops and cooperatives in Atsugi city are organising a network entitled as eHuman Support Network Atsugif. They are exchanging information and working on the formation of collective learning programmes and advocacy. The challenges that this network is facing can be summarised in two points. Firstly, the Human Support Network Atsugi needs to consolidate and enhance their capacity as an intermediate organisation that has an effect on the local municipality. Secondly, the network needs to raise the leaders of next generation, so that the civic enterprises mentioned in this essay continue to develop in the future.
(translated by Yoshihiro Nakano, July, 2009)
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