The Contemporary Characteristics of the Japanese Workers' Co-operatives and the Issue of the ‘Associated Work’

Abstract

This article aims to explore the characteristics and the changing nature of the Japanese Workers' Co-operatives in a climate structured by the welfare restructuring process. Following a brief outline of the workers' co−operative movement in Japan, a case study of the Japan Workers' Cooperative Union(JWCU), focusing on 3 aspects of its practice−impacts on job creation, social needs and forms of work−, is carried out. The central argument of this article is that, in the social enterprise discourse, there is a relatively weak theoretical foundation for the study of the linkage between employability/or social innovation, and the ‘associated work’. If people are to be empowered through the social enterprise practice, then the development process of the social enterprise must be further considered in terms of whether or not it facilitates the enhancement of members' participation and collective subjectivity.