Better Living Guidance Activities of JAs

To realize peaceful and affluent living is one of the biggest challenges facing JA members and residents of what is a drastically changing local community.

JA’s better living guidance is an important activity that, through cooperative activities covering all aspects of living, aims to help enhance living standards of member families etc. and to build a local community good to live in.

JA’s better living guidance has a long history, i.e. as long as the farm guidance activities, and, since the inception of JAs, has been undertaken centrally by JA women’s groups in pursuit of better living of farm households. JA’s better living guidance has been given a definite place as important cooperative activities among all the activities of JA, since when “the Basic Scheme for Better Living Activities” was drawn up in 1970 and when it was followed up by “the Campaign to Strengthen Cooperative Activities.”

The activities have expanded their scope from health management, living-culture activities including cooking class, consumers’ activities to seek after safe foods, nursing-care activities for the aged people based on the spirit of mutual help, to sales of local agricultural products at farmers’ markets, local-based food and agricultural educational activities using school programs of “learning by experience” in agriculture/rural life and to activities to preserve environment, and so forth.

While some of the better living activities like the joint purchasing of living necessities through A-Coop Stores are under review from the standpoints of profitability and importance, other activities either unique to cooperatives or conducive to building of better local communities such as welfare activities for the aged and the running of farmers’ markets are set to be strengthened with high priority.

Trend in the Number of Better Living Advisors

Source: “Statistics on Multipurpose Agricultural Cooperatives” MAFF

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