27 May 2025
Resolution calling for the promotion of cooperatives to mark the International Year of Cooperatives
House of Representatives
National Diet of Japan
The House of Representatives resolves as follows:
The United Nations General Assembly decided in December 2023 to designate 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives to promote cooperatives and raise awareness of their contribution to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to overall social and economic development.
The Government of Japan also stated in its SDGs Implementation Guiding Principles that "Cooperatives and other private-sector entities that engage in public activities in which local citizens participate in the spirit of mutual aid are expected to contribute to the SDGs by building a humane society based on self-reliance and symbiosis, and revitalizing regional ties, in order to resolve the issues that are piling up in each region."
Therefore, the government should work on promoting cooperatives under the following basic principles:
1. In formulating and implementing policies concerning cooperatives, take into account the 2001 UN guidelines aimed at creating a supportive environment for the development of cooperatives and the International Labor Organization's Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation (2002) and respect the definition, values and principles of cooperatives as stipulated in the 1995 International Cooperative Alliance Statement on the Cooperative Identity;
2. Place great importance on how cooperatives operate, based on the spirit of mutual aid, for the sustainable development of local communities, and treat them as key players in sustainable community building; and
3. Place great importance on the role nonprofit, nonpublic organizations can play in the current Japanese economy and society and pay attention to the development of cooperatives, which are nonprofit private organizations democratically managed and controlled by numerous members.