**"How to Start an Environmental Business - What is a Successful Cooperative Method" - September 1998**.

**"How to Start an Environmental Business - What is a Successful Cooperative Method" - September 1998**.

In the late 1990s, the Japanese economy was stuck in a long period of stagnation following the collapse of the bubble economy. As the growth model centered on large corporations wavered, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and sole proprietors began to search for ways to survive in the new field of "environmental business. In particular, as environmental issues came under close scrutiny as a major social issue following the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, government subsidy programs and support from the Environment Agency and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) helped to spur the search for new business possibilities with "eco" as a keyword in many areas.

The characteristic feature of this approach is the emphasis on collaboration, similar to today's start-up communities, where people "do not start alone," "meet with people from different industries," and "discuss based on common issues.

First, participants are invited to participate in a form similar to a cross-industry meeting, where each person introduces his or her current business to the other. The aim here is to create a new business model by leveraging each other's strengths rather than trying to develop an invisible market on their own. In fact, participants discuss business possibilities based on the ideas they bring to the table, and subcommittees are established for each theme to proceed with market research, pricing, and product design. In this process, "face-to-face relationships" are emphasized, and the speed of consensus building and shared trust are the driving forces behind the collaboration.

In addition, "cooperatives" are introduced as a system that embodies the results of such an emergent process. This is a framework in which small and medium-sized enterprises cooperate with each other in product development, distribution, sales, finance, research, and other areas to compensate for weak financial and market development capabilities. The cooperative needed only a minimum of four members to be established, and could take advantage of government and municipal subsidies. The cooperative system worked particularly well in environment-related fields, such as the distribution of recycled resources and the development and import of eco-goods.

The article introduces the following patterns as successful examples:
Cases in which environmental goods are imported from overseas and sold in Japan
A case in which an entrepreneur who left his job as a salaried worker develops a new product by utilizing his own specialty.
Cases in which entrepreneurs who have left their jobs as subcontractors for major companies have become independent and have shifted to new fields of business.
Cases in which entrepreneurs have commercialized environmental technologies based on many years of research

What all of these cases have in common is a "strong commitment to the environment" and "ability to execute through collaboration. In other words, the environmental business of this era was a place where people with "aspirations" as well as economic rationality supported each other as they moved forward.