A Study on modern historical significance of economic idea of mutual aid in Japan

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K03573
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic doctrine/Economic thought
• Research Institution: Ehime University
• Principal Investigator: Matsunoo Hiroshi 愛媛大学, 教育学部, 研究員 (30239058)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 相互扶助 / 協同組合 / 賀川豊彦 / 報徳思想 / 二宮尊徳

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this research is to elucidate how the idea of mutual aid in modern Japan and the historical experience of the social movement for living and community improvement envisioned from it contributes to the contemporary ideological situation. Specifically, I focused on Toyohiko Kagawa's deepening of cooperative thought and its social activities through the prewar and postwar periods, and clarified through literature and field research that the idea and organization of consumer cooperatives had become established in Japan. The results were published as "The Economy of Hope: Toyohiko Kagawa's Essay on Cooperative Life" (2018) and "Toyohiko Kagawa: Mutual Help and Fraternity Education and Business" (2020). Next, I researched Sontoku Ninomiya's hotoku theory as the source of cooperative thought. The results will be published as "Hotoku Thought and Its Development"(2023).

Free Research Field

経済思想

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の意義は、学術的には柄谷行人著『世界史の構造』同『力と交換様式』が論じる「高次の互酬的交換様式」に代表される近年のアソシエーション再評価の思想史的一系譜を、従来のアナーキズム論の枠にとらわれることなく、日常生活への眼差しから発想された生活協同の思想として解明したことにある。また社会的には2011年の福島原発事故後各地で提起されている生活基盤を相互扶助経済に求める主張が国連の国際協同組合年設定(2012年)やネスコによる「共通の利益の実現のために協同組合を組織するという思想と実践」の無形文化遺産登録(2016年)に力づけられて市民レベルで国際的に加速化する動きに寄与するものである。