Origin of the Seikatsu Club
Unlike European and North American consumer cooperatives that started in response to poverty, the major consumer cooperatives in Japan today grew out of a demand for clean and green food. Rapid industrialization after the Second World War led to serious environmental degradation that endangered the safety of food supply. An example was the Minamata Disease incident, where more than 2,000 people were fatally poisoned by fish and shellfish polluted by mercury-containing industrial waste water from a chemical factory of the Chisso Corporation. In 1965, the Seikatsu Club was formed because of the concern for the safety of milk among about 200 housewives from Tokyo. Together, they made sure they purchased safe milk from known farmers as a group at a level of 329 bottles a day. Making use of the economies of scale, the group could purchase at a discount price. In two years, membership grew to 800, mostly consisting of upper and middle class housewives.
Seikatsu Milk
Seikatsu’s milk business grew with its membership. In response to the high demand for clean milk, also because of the need to monitor the production process more closely, Seikatsu set up its own production center. Before 1978, all milk consumed by urban households in Japan was ultra-high-temperature milk (UHT). In 1987, Seikatsu set up the country’s first and only pasteurized milk factory, collectively owned by milk producers and the Club. The quality of products was carefully controlled. Producers were barred from using GMOs and antibiotics in any stage of production. The milk was contained in recyclable glass bottles. As the production capacity was larger than the demand of the members, the milk factory did not serve Seikatsu members alone, but marketed its products more widely as well. Schools were one of their most significant consumers. However, the business was not highly profitable. The Coop lost some money in recent years. There is the possibility to scale down.