Professor Amartya Sen
The Master's Lodge Trinity College Cambridge University
Cambridge CB2 1TQ

Yuzo Nagato Japanese Workers' Co-operative Union

Dear Professor Amartya Sen,

　　Thank you very much for your sparing a precious time for our interview on October 17th, despite that you are very busy and that the day is Sunday.

　　As Mr. Matsuzawa who is the editor in chief of our organ“The Japanese Worker’s Co-operative News” has already told you, we have been working at the workers co-operative movement including the elderly co-operatives which are organised and managed by elderly persons themselves.

　　I would have asked you that both Mr. Kanno and I would like to meet you, and besides us, I would like to request you that Mr. Yuichiro Nakagawa, who is the president of our Institute of Co-operative Research and a professor of Meiji University in Tokyo, will take part in our interview. I wonder if you could be allowed him to take part in it. Our interpreter is Mr. Kazuto Suzuki who has worked for the United Nations, and studied for the Ph.D of Politics at Sussex University. Four of us visit the Master’s Lodge at 3:30 p.m..

　　What we would like to interview and ask you

1. The status quo of economic and social situation, and our activities

　　As you know, Japan has put the growth of private big businesses and enterprises before everything else during the post Second War. However, at the present day, under the economy based on mass production, mass consumption, mass disposal and shorter business cycles which have promoted Japan Capitalism, and under the circumstances of bankruptcy of speculative economy, the long term depression is still moving on. In such situation the dismissal called“restructuring” has been enforced on a number of workers without resistance and opposition by unions against it, and consequently the unemployment is the worst since the post war, and the number of persons who committed suicide has increased as well. Mr. Obuchi, prime minister, professed that the unemployment on this level would be a necessary effect for economic regeneration, and has given preference to promoting the“restructuring” over some effective policies for employment. Mr. Obuchi has pumped more than 10,000 billion yen into the big banks and general construction companies, while he has rejected the life supports for the people who have been victimised on the Hanshin Earthquake Disaster because of“self-responsibility in market economy”.

　　At present we have feared of deepening isolation among people and the decline of communities. We think it is by the isolation and decline that on the one hand, elderly people have lost their human relationships and their social, domestic roles or functions, and have been bedridden and become a senile dementia, and on the other, young people have been in out of job, and can not find their own way of life and work.

　　We have been working at workers’ co-operatives and elderly co-operatives amid such economic, political and social setting. Our workers’ co-operatives which were organised in order to wrestle for jobs by the jobless has built a movement. The movement was, at first, started by members who sought some opportunities to work, and not welfare services, and then established as one setting up the“good works useful and valuable for founding communities”. In the process they could have establish the concept of“Associated Work”, which means, in a word, that the workers themselves contribute, manage their organisations, create the opportunities to work on the basis of their solidarity, and improve the quality of work useful and valuable for every person and community. At present we have developed a movement seeking for legislation of the Workers’ Co-operative Law drawn up by ourselves, by which all the people who wish“Associated Work” will be able to choose it.

　　At the same time, elderly co-operatives which have been organised by members and supported by people who help them is expanding as a new co-operative, realising“Care, Work, and Well-being”.

2. What we have learned from Professor Sen’s works and impressed deeply

　　In the meantime we have been able to access Professor Sen’s lecture entitled Co-operation and Global Ethics before the Lega in Italy, through which we have fully realised that your works and theories have given us more helpful suggestions and much encouragement in our activities. In addition, we have had such a sense firmly by reading your some works, such as Inequality Reexamined, "Inequality, unemployment and contemporary Europe"(International Labour Review), and the interview by Tokyo Newspaper(January 1st ,1999) and some studies and comments on your theories, and watching NHK TV. Particularly, what we learn from them and they move us are the following:

　　Professor Sen has given the "Co-operative Principle" a higher position, and we have received seriously as follows;

1. Sense of human nature: people are not "rational fools" pursuing only the self-interest and maximisation of utility, but human beings realising freedoms through interdependency, with sympathies and commitments.

2. View of economy and society: the goal of economic development is to develop "capabilities" of people and to realise society that personal diversity fully comes into bloom, and that the relationships among people closely develop.

3. Meaning of public and governmental interventions: (private) possession and exchange should be set under the entitlement including the economic beneficial rights, by which a great number of economic resources make all the people to be available for production, exchange and consumption.

4. Importance of participatory democracy: people become a primary substance in any public activities where they create values and criteria through discussions and forums, and oppose governments, on the one hand and co-operate with them, on the other.

5. Argument of universalism: it goes beyond the narrow "national particularism", and it is also based on the "global unity" and "sense of the world citizen".

6. Emphasis of people's independence based on employment: professor Sen has pointed out the penalties of unemployment, and emphasised guaranteeing the opportunities of employment. Moreover, you have proposed increasing the retirement age of elderly people without being opposed to any resolutions of employment issues.

7. Appreciation of the co-operative movement in Emilia-Romagna: professor Sen has appreciated the professional, skilled works in small businesses, and attached importance to the quality of work. For our workers' co-operative movement in Japan the movements in Emilia-Romangna and other regions have been a treasure house of encouragement and lessons. In this sense, we feel that the present co-operative movement is directly and indirectly linking with your "capability approach".

3. what we would like to ask you in the interview

1. In order to resolve the problems of unemployment, what theories and policies should we seek for? We think that we should socially replace workforces as a whole; from the mass production and speculation areas where workforces have been removed to the areas supporting the sustainable development of communities, i.e. care, foods, environment, education, culture and so on.

2. The elderly and handicapped let themselves live self-supporting life, how should we grasp the life of the elderly and handicapped and how should we develop the public polices and citizenship activities?

3. After the end of the cold war we have witnessed some of the conflicts and wars between nations, how should we create peace and solidarity for human beings from viewpoint of conquering the narrow "national particularism" ?

4. Professor Sen has appreciated a "C0-operative Principle", and could you tell us its substance, moment, and approach? (e.g. view of humanity, economic and social image to aim at, participatory democracy and human development, characteristics of enterprises and industrial sectors, etc..)

5. Could you give us the suggestions how should we cut our way of the co-operative movement in the 21st century ?

6. Finally, we think that we should change the form of employed work, and hence establish an area of "Associated Work" in order to get work and labour socially to be useful and worth working, and to change the alienated to true human work, could you tell us your thought of such issues ?

4. What we have a favour of professor Sen in regards to the interview

1. Would you please permit appearing the outline of our interview in Economist in Japan(Mainich-shinbun-sha) ? The manuscripts are to be check beforehand by you.

2. We think that we would like to publish the book composed of (a)detailed contents of the interview, (b)comments by Japanese researchers, and (c)some articles and lectures on the co-operatives and problems of unemployment by professor Sen, would you permit publishing this book for Japanese people and co-operators engaged in the co-operative movement? If possible, could you tell us your conditions and requirements?

3. I wonder if you could tell us your articles, lectures, and related materials which we are able to translate into Japanese