In 1965, elevated milk prices made three housewives start an initiative together. Quickly their memebers increased to 200. They bought 300 bottles of milk for a cheaper price directly at the farm. The Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Cooperative was born. Today, this extraordinary consumer initiative organizes 230 000 households, which means overall: one million people are supplied with several products, which are bought according to a strict ecological and social policy or which are made in one of the many cooperative-owned companies. Today, 8000 people work in the 200 different organizations and small businesses of the Seikatsu Clubs (SCCC), which include recycling, restaurants, whole food bakeries, organic gardens, second-hand stores, nursing homes, and the fabrication on organic cleaning supplies. In 1979, one of the SCCC activists was elected into the town hall of Tokyo. Following this event, the club evolved into a strong political force with the claim: "Political revolution comes from the kitchen".  A total of 100 city councillors were sent to various conventions in the city.

"The goal of our cooperative movement is the creation of alternative lifestyles that oppose mass production and mass consumption", says SCCC member Machiko Yajima. "The Seikatsu Club is organized in small units, the so-called Hans, which comprise no more than 12 members of the same neighbourhood. One-hundred of those 'Hans' form the next bigger unit, but the Hans remain the basis for cooperative shopping and reciprocal help. At the same time, the enormous size of the organization and its spending power made it possible that several agricultural businesses changed to organic production and that there was a market for many alternative products. Apart from inexpensive shopping opportunities, the club takes care of social affairs, protection of the environment, women’s interests and the improvement of working conditions. Machiko Yajima: “We are convinced that housewives can start to build a society which takes care of the environment by being active at home.”

Instead of generating wealth by exploiting others, the initiative focuses on fair trade conditions, supports the independence of producers and consumers from the government and multinational companies and can thus work in a community building way. Together with the UNO, the Seikatsu Club engaged in working on a consumer directed moral code for transnational companies. They are thinking about expanding the initiative to Korea and other countries.