During 2025, there have been a number of visits by delegations led by Manchester City Council to Japan to further strengthen cultural and business relationships. These have included visits from the Greater Manchester Music Commission and from groups including Co-operatives UK. Manchester celebrated Japan week during September with further cultural highlights planned throughout the year.

In October, a delegation travelling for Expo in Osaka will include the Co-operative Heritage Trust Chair of Trustees and so we take the opportunity to look at the history of the links between Japan and the co-operative movement and how the relationship continues to grow today.

Cover of JCCU brochure, 1980. Co-op Archive Pamphlet Collection, Co-operative Heritage Trust.

Co-ops are big in Japan, and according to the Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union (JCCU) consumer co-ops in Japan have 30 million members nationwide with a total business turnover of over 3.7 trillion yen. The international success of the Rochdale Principles and Law First which developed into the co-operative values and principles (still the basis of co-operatives today), was picked up by Japan and early co-ops were set up in Tokyo and Osaka in the 1850s. Although not successful, this early incorporation of Co-ops developed widely. 

Owen and the Emperor 

A set of letters held in the Robert Owen Correspondence collection at the Co-op Archive show that towards the end of Owen’s life in July 1858, he was promoting his co-operative and rational principles to the nations of far eastern Asia. In one, Owen requests whether the Foreign Office would be willing to dispatch packages that are addressed to the Emperors of China and Japan, and the King of Siam and that these packages contained materials that will be of benefit to their societies. A reply from the secretary for the Earl of Malmesbury informs Owen that while it is possible to send parcels to the East Indies, China, and Japan; it is not customary to do so through the Foreign Office and his Lordship is unable to break the rule on this occasion.

 

Letter from Robert Owen to James Harris, 3rd Earl Malmesbury, Robert Owen Correspondence, ROC/8/27/1, Co-operative Heritage Trust

A further letter, written by a clerk at the Colonial Office named W.F Higgins, refers to a collection of parcels addressed by Owen to the Emperor of Japan. The letters sent to both the Foreign and Colonial Offices, and to Owen’s associate James Rigby, suggest that Owen is distributing his own literature to as many foreign dignitaries as he can beyond Europe. If Owen’s parcels ever made the journey, it is possible that the first conversations about co-operation in Japan were held in the shade of the Chrysanthemum Throne.

We do know that the work of Robert Owen has been studied throughout Japan with his work being translated in the mid 1800s and Owen influenced many co-operators including Dr Toyohiko Kagawa.  

First visitor

Many people have visited the Rochdale Pioneers Museum, the birthplace of modern co-operation at Toad Lane in Rochdale and this includes many visitors from Japan. From the visitors book we know that the first of these visitors was Tomizo Noguchi on October 14th 1872.

During this time, a Japanese diplomatic voyage to the United States and the UK visited the UK. The aim was in order to promote Japan after a time of closure from the west and to study methods of business, politics, and diplomacy. Known as the Iwakura Mission, it consisted of leading statesmen and scholars of the day including Noguchi who joined as part of the Ministry of Works and was engaged in silk manufacturing surveys in addition to guidance and interpretation

From previous research, we know that in 1865, Tomizo Noguchi began working for Sir Ernest Mason Satow (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), a British diplomat, scholar, and Japanologist. From 1869 Satow and Noguchi were living together in the UK and joined the mission tour in 1872.

Rochdale Toad Lane visitors book, 1872, Co-operative Heritage Trust

Kobe

The flagship of the Co-op Movement in Japan is consumer Co-op founded by Dr T Kagawa, Co-op Kobe, a consumer Co-op. Kobe is a port town with a history of shipbuilding and industrial development. The college in Kobe features large gardens that can be enjoyed by students and the public, a library, lecture hall, sports area and surprisingly, a copy of the Toad Lane shop.

 

Toad Lane Copy, Kobe. Co-operative Heritage Trust

During the 1980s, visitors from Kobe came to look at the plans of Toad Lane. This resulted in a copy of Toad Lane being built in Kobe though the building is bigger than the original. When librarian Roy Garret visited, he presented them with a slate from the museum which was removed during renovation.

The UK movement were worried that this new building would mean people would not come to visit the museum in the UK, but this in fact made more people wanted to visit the original place where the Rochdale Pioneers set up the shop. Much of the building is devoted to the history of co-operation in Japan with much on Kagawa, and so this did not cross over the Rochdale Pioneers museum display.

Kobe stone

Just across from the Rochdale Pioneers museum is the Kobe stone, one of several that were made and put in various countries where the co-operative movements had links to Japan. this was a memorial to those who dies in the 1995 earthquake.

When the stone arrived, there was discussion of putting it by the Museum but there was nowhere to put it. At the time, Co-operative Retail Services (CRS) had separated from the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) and moved to newly built central premises at Sandbrook Park in Rochdale. It had extensive grounds with artwork that included Noah's ark and the animals by the lake, and they offered a home to the Kobe Stone.

Kobe Stone outside Rochdale Pioneers Museum

When CRS merged into CWS in the early 2000s, they moved back to Manchester and Sandbrook Park was sold. The stone was transported to Stanford Hall, then the home of the Co-operative College.

When the College moved north, the stone was once more dug up and brought north. During amicable discussions between the College and the Council, they were happy to give it a new home outside Toad Lane- where it had been intended to go in the first place.

Kagawa

Toyohiko Kagawa, Co-operative Union Photographic Collection, CUP/2/24/2, Co-operative Heritage Trust 

Dr Toyohiko Kagawa was a Christian pastor and environmentalist who felt his community deserved pure and wholesome food. He dedicated his whole life to the development of co-operative movements in Japan. He always stood on the front-line of social reform movements such as the movements for labourers, farmers, and universal suffrage. As with the Rochdale Pioneers, Kagawa was not only concerned with fair Co-operative trading but also looking at educational social and cultural activities.

Between the first and second World Wars the co-operation movement grew in Japan, especially in agriculture though co-operative activity was lessened during the period of the dictatorial militant Government. After the second World War, the co-operative movement grew once again in farming, fishing and agriculture, forestry, university, medical and insurance and of course, in retail.

In November 1945, just after the end of the war, Kagawa organized the Japanese Co-operative Alliance at the end of the war in November 1945 and founded the Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union in 1951. He served as the President until his death in 1960 at the age of 72.

The work that he undertook to develop the Co-op movement in Japan and his international reputation has earned him the title of the Father of Japanese Co-operation.

International Research

As well as visitors to the Rochdale Pioneers Museum, we have many visitors from Japan using the archives at Holyoake House in Manchester. During the 3 years that I have been in post, these have included researchers of Kagawa’s life and visits to the UK and most recently, a visit from academic Chieko Ichikawa who has been a few times studying the work of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth whose short stories were serialised in the Co-op News and Wheatsheaf journals.

Reader Chieko Ichikawa n the Co-op Archive reading Room, October 2025

Previously, she researched the Women’s Corner in the Co-op News as a Curran fellow and her report can be found in the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals.

We welcome anyone to come and look at material that we hold in the archive and on our webpages, we have information and links to guides that will provide information to get the most out of your archive visit.