The comprehensive development process of Japanese WISEs, from a study of WISE infrastructure organizations

Introduction　“Social enterprise” is still a new concept in Japan. It has been introduced to Japan under the influences of American social entrepreneurship theory and European social enterprise theory (mainly the EMES... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction

　“Social enterprise” is still a new concept in Japan. It has been introduced to Japan under the influences of American social entrepreneurship theory and European social enterprise theory (mainly the EMES European Research network) since the late 1990s. But social enterprise concept has never been introduced to vacuum space in Japan. Especially Japanese WISEs have long history. They have　developed in Japanese society in relationship with various social movements and public policies.　

　But it is very difficult to grasp the whole picture of Japanese WISEs statistically. That is because Japanese WISEs don’t have legal status and there is no agreed definition of social enterprise in Japan. So we focused on infrastructure organizations of Japanese WISEs. There are not a few infrastructure organizations of WISEs including federations and networks in workers’ co-operative movements and in some issue areas such as homeless, poverty, disability, youth problems and so on. Those infrastructure organisations have always been core organizations in Japanese WISE movements and played important roles creating and promoting specific identities of WISEs, making collaborations between WISEs and advocating preferable public policies to central and local governments. Therefore in this report, we want to make clear how Japanese WISEs have been developing in relationship with social movements and public policies since 1960s and what kinds of social functions they are carrying out for Japanese WISEs by researching those infrastructure organizations.

Methodology

  We conducted semi-structured interviews to about 15 infrastructure organizations of Japanese WISEs. Those infrastructure organizations are classified into 1) co-opertive federation type and 2) issue specific type. Then we tried to understand the development process of Japanese WISEs in each streams. Our research was supported by a research grant of National Federation of Workers and Consumers Insurance Co-operative.

The main argument of the paper

　At first Japanese WISEs emerged in Japanese high economic growth period in 1960s. In this period “Japanese welfare regime” was formed. Despite weak welfare state, Japanese welfare regime has been strongly supported by family care and safety net of companies, so-called Japanese management system.

But at that time there were people excluded from labor market such as the disabled, the elderly and housewives. Initially they set up Japanese WISEs. For example movements of the disabled launched workshops for the disabled. Consumer co-operatives whose members are mainly house wives created workers’ collectives. Workers’ co-operatives under the umbrella of Japan Workers’ Co-operative Union (JWCU) was set up by labor movements of unemployed people. Those Japanese WISEs formed homogeneous groups of specific categories of people in relationship with different public policies.

But after the burst of the bubble economy in 1990s and Lehman Shock in 2008, Japanese welfare regime collapsed. Poverty and social exclusion problems spread rapidly. In the result the situation of Japanese WISEs changed drastically as follows.

1. The domain of Japanese WISEs widened. Many daily employed people became unemployed and homeless. And disadvantaged young people got into precarious and poor situation. So Japanese WISEs need to create jobs and provide job training for those people.

2. Co-operative type WISEs changed from homogeneous mutual organizations to more inclusive organizations involving various people. 

3. Common methods such as personal support service and “Banso support” are shared among many Japanese WISEs. “Banso” means that supporter snuggles up to socially disadvantaged people, and Banso support is multi functional support including making communities and coordinating various local actors. 

4. Networks of Japanese WISEs are strengthened in relationship with the current activation policies. After Lehman Shock in 2008, Japanese government got to commit themselves to activation policies in earnest. The target of the law of independence support for the needy enacted in 2015 include any socially excluded people. Thanks to this law, networks of Japanese WISEs have been strengthened. In 2014 national network of independence support for the needy was launched by many Japanese WISEs across various issues. And this network are committed to advocacy role to national and local governments in Japan. 

Conclusion

　We found cohesion process of Japanese WISEs by the research of infrastructure organizations. That cohesion process is influenced by not only above-mentioned activation policies, but also social exclusion problems themselves. Japanese WISEs gradually got to recognize that many issues are closely connected and many disadvantaged people are socially isolated. So they place emphasis on community empowerment methods like “Banso support” commonly. And we found the infrastructure organizations of WISEs are playing key roles to develop and diffuse such kinds of methods which legitimatize WISEs themselves.   

Main Reference

Atsushi Fujii, Kohki Harada, Yurie Kumakura, Reeya Komoda, Rei Imai and Joungin Park, 2016 “The development process and the current situation of Japanese WISEs, from the research of infrastructure organizations of WISEs,” report funded by National Federation of Workers and Consumers Insurance Co-operative.