By Yvonne Poirier

Editors' note: Yvon Poirier is an editor of the International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development, from which this article is copied. The Japanese Seikatsu Club Consumers' Co-Operative Union was the subject of both the spring and summer issues of GEO (#s 12 and 13) in 1994. Seikatsu has grown since then to include 290,000 households. It is notable for its combination of worker and consumer co-ops, its insistence on high food quality, and for its direct involvement in local politics in the Tokyo area. Yvon comments that the current conservative government is doing all it can to undermine co-ops and other similar sectors.