Shiori Kimoto and Shin Sudo from Japan Workers’ Cooperative Union (JWCU) are in Manchester for the International Cooperative Alliance and UK Coop Congress events. Yesterday we took them to visit our members Unicorn Grocery in Manchester and Kitty’s Launderette in Liverpool - a brilliant day, and Violetta Nafpaktiti from our event sponsor domains.coop co-hosted. Shiori and Shin work in childcare and adult care, for Japan’s first (founded 1987) and now largest worker co-op, Central Workers’ Co-operative (CWC). CWC has 10,000 workers and 8,000 worker members, started off as a cleaning co-op and now with 400 business centres across the country, in care, environmental services and agricultural production.
When we first published the first edition of our Worker Co-op code in 2012, JWCU translated and published it in Japanese.
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@danholden I want to test your assertion that you’ve got ‘the biggest’ worker co-op sign in the country. Can we get some perspective please?
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This sounds brill - it’s great to know there’s co-op comrades in Japan!
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Wow, that wasn’t there last time I was in Glasgow! Suspect Greencity’s might be a touch bigger.
I still maintain Unicorn’s sign is the biggest in England. And it lights up (with the latest low energy LED technology of course)
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Looks like an amazing day!! Would love to talk to Shiori and Shin about childcare cooperatives in Japan. Really interesting that the CWC started off as a cleaning co-op…
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Do we need a worker co-op Christmas lights competition this year?
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Fab you got to meet our japanese comrades Sion ! And learn about their co-op journey. Really inspiring. Greencity is now on the Glasgow Murals Trail - so we might stand a chance of luring random folx into our rad way of life !! Soz cldnae make Congress this year, I’m under the kosh in the warehouse between holidays and Covid !!
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