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   This document has been made available in electronic format
           by the International Co-operative Alliance.
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Book Review
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             Gendai Seikyo-ho no Riron 
    (Modern Theory of Japanese Consumer Co-operative)

        Miyasaka Tominosuke (Ed.), Tokyo, 1994 
           (Price: Japanese Yen 2,800)


         Reviewed by H. Nakanishi, Researcher


In Japan there are individual laws for each different type of
co-operatives, such as the Agricultural Co-operative Law, Medium
and Small Enterprise Co-operative Law, Consumer Co-operative Law.
The legislative basis for consumer co-operative societies had
been in force in general under the Industrial Association Law
until the Consumer Co-operative Law was passed after World War
Two in 1948.

This book, as a collective effort by the study-group on
co-operative system which is organised by CCIJ, focuses on the
present Consumer Co-operative Law and how it affects co-operative
movement and management of co-operatives. Therefore, it is not
a simple guide of the Law nor a monograph which has nothing to
do with practical matters.

It challenges to analyze a number of problems that co-operative
movement in Japan is facing now. For instance, local limitations
of co-operative operation, prohibition of non-member business,
member participation and business connection with related
companies are the current issues. This book consists of Part I
`Business, Administration and Legislation' and Part II `Finance
and Taxation'.

Thus, this book is different from those mere commentaries of the
Law which have been published from the early post-war period. It
is a first great work that identifies the point connecting the
Law and practical movement.