Japanese Consumer Group System

Abstract

Types of consumer groups can be classified as customer consumer groups or citizen consumer groups. The former pursues the consumers' economic interests and rights, and generally has a mass - based membership, whereas the latter pursues the social and political interests of the public and stresses consumers' social responsibility. Major consumer groups in most advanced countries were formed as customer consumer groups based on the model of the U.S. Consumers Union in the 1950s and 60s. By contrast, in Japan, major groups were rather organized as a hybrid of both types without a mass - based membership, and have slowly moved between them. This seems to be the main character of the contemporary Japanese consumer group system. The purpose of this article is to analyze how this system was established in the 1960s and why it has been maintained. The article points out three historical conditions that affected the way the CU model was imported to Japan. It also explains how non material selective incentives have employed in maintaining the above mentioned consumer groups in the system.