The Seikatsu Club Consumers' Cooperative (SCCC) of Japan is a unique organisation of its kind, combining formidable business and professional skills with strict social and ecological principles and a vision of a community- and people-centred economy that provides a radical alternative to both socialist and capitalist industrialisation.

SCCC traces its foundation back to 1965 when a single Tokyo housewife organised 200 women to buy 300 bottles of milk to reduce the price. Since then, Seikatsu's growth has been exponential. It now has about 260,000 family members, who are organised into neighbourhood 'Hans' or local groups of between five and 12 members each. The Club now buys in bulk a very wide range of products for its members; it has introduced large-scale conservation projects and influenced its suppliers to provide healthy and non-polluting products.

Although house-to-house delivery is expanding rapidly, the Han remains the basic unit of the cooperative, placing each member's order, sharing bulk purchases and also helping each other in their daily life. The Hans 'seek to empower each and every member with a voice and role in participatory politics'.

The Seikatsu Club is a significant business enterprise. By 2005, total annual retail sales had reached 73 billion yen (about US$ 610 million), while the accumulated funds (the investment of members) stand at about 21 billion yen. Since the 1980s, the Club has started over 400 workers' collectives, running restaurants, bakeries, used goods stores, soap factories and caring for elderly people. They employ 15,000 workers (2005).

Seikatsu's business operates through a unique, computer-operated advance ordering system to enable producers to plan in advance and guarantee product freshness. When the Club cannot find products of adequate quality to meet its ecological or social standards, it will consider producing them itself, as it now does with milk and soap. Much emphasis is placed on direct contact between producers and consumers to humanise the market, especially in the area of food production, where consumers regularly visit farmers to observe production methods and/or to lend a hand.

In their campaigns against synthetic detergents, Club members realised the importance of the political process and formed independent networks in different prefectures to contest local elections. In 1979 the first network member was elected to Tokyo city government and in 2005, there were more than 150 Seikatsu members serving as local councillors.

SCCC has greatly contributed to the reduction of CO2 emissions by using returnable bottles and containers. 44 food items such as soft drinks, soy sauce, and jams are delivered to members in returnable bottles. In 2003, about 8000 t of containers and bottles were retrieved, which meant a reduction of about 2200 t of CO2.

While Japanese consumers face flooding food imports, especially genetically modified food, SCCC declared itself "GMO Free" in 1997. In cooperation with producers, SCCC has inspected every consumer material while proceeding with its own labelling system and the exclusion of GM food, feed, and additives.

The Club has determined to devote more effort to promoting self-sufficiency in food and the sustainability of local agriculture, even though these run counter to international pressures provoked by the World Trade Organisation, which threaten to destroy family fanning. The Club also aims to diversify working opportunities for women and has committed itself to exploring the scope for a people-oriented welfare system.