Leadership in Co-operatives : The Experience of the Japanese Consumer Co-operative Movement

What kind of leadership should the co-operative movement seek and exercise? Because democracy is the most basic principle of the movement and underpins the structure of co-operative societies, the leadership of co-ops must be completely different from that of a private company or an autocratic organisation. As my research has been mainly on the history of the consumer co-operative movement in Japan and Britain, this paper will be from the historical viewpoint.