How an agricultural cooperative in modern Japan controlled its stakeholders : the case of the Takedate Cooperative

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  • 産業組合による生産・流通過程の統制 : 無限責任竹館林檎生産購買販売信用組合の事例
  • サンギョウ クミアイ ニ ヨル セイサン ・ リュウツウ カテイ ノ トウセイ : ムゲン セキニンタケカン リンゴ セイサン コウバイ ハンバイ シンヨウ クミアイ ノ ジレイ

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This study aims to shed light on the famous Takedate Cooperative's production and marketing activities from 1907 to the 1930s. Established in Aomori prefecture, one of the backward agricultural areas of the northeast, the Takedate Cooperative supported member's production activities, and introduced standardization and trademarking in the apple trade, creating the 'Takedate Apple' brand. Its high-quality products fostered trust among clients and built relationships with powerful merchants in big cities across the country, allowing Takedate apples to trade at relatively higher prices. However, because the cooperative was organized across villages, managers could not control members' behaviour through village community norms, and some members did not play by the cooperative rules, selling apples independently in the market to merchants not specified by the cooperative. It was difficult to rein in such members. With the poor business conditions after World War I, this tendency grew stronger, and many members with-drew their memberships. By World War II, the cooperative had no choice but to allow members to sell their apples freely in the market. The cooperative eventually produced the economically rational peasant not bound by rule and norm. This, then, is the focus of this study.

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