The Co-op

One out of five Japanese people belong to the co-op!

I did not know this.
Wow! I used to be a member as were all my friends here in Kashiwa.

Interesting story about the power of the co-op. First of all, what are co-ops? Basically, co-ops provide better, safer, food and other products to their members - though group buying.  You join a co-op and in my case, I had to pay a refundable fee of 30,000 yen (about 300 dollars) to cover joint expenses. Supposedly, the co-op contracts with farmers to produce food with fewer pesticides and chemicals. Many mothers with young children join co-ops. You don't have to go shopping. You get a catalog once a week and you order from that. It is delivered to your door, once a week. You order your food on a weekly basis, and they bill you once a month and deduct the amount from your bank account - a typical Japanese payment method.

Well, as you can imagine, with 1 out of 5 Japanese as members, they have quite a network of storage facilities, production facilities, delivery systems, truck drivers with  local knowledge of every single little town and village!!! To say the least! Vast storage facilities and vast amounts of food on hand at any one time.

Well, as soon as news of the earthquake hit the air waves, 40 members of the co-op emergency board were meeting to see what they could do. All this without anyone from government or anyone else asking them. They started mounting their vast power of local knowledge, trucks and truck drivers who know every road in their area, bread production, food/meal production etc. etc. AND, WITHIN THREE HOURS OF THE QUAKE, they were already delivering food to devastated areas!! Amazing. What did they deliver first, --croissants, which are easy for them to make and get out on the road, so to speak in a short period of time. The bread was made somewhere on the China Sea side of Japan and driven over the central mountains to the other side. Then again within a few more hours, they were bringing in other types of food and meals. Also, they sent out local reps and started going house to house to help people who stay in their homes and do not go to the refugee centers.

That is kind of cool, if you ask me!