Kokumin Kyosai co-op, one of ICMIF’s members in Japan has recently welcomed a new President of the organization, Mr Masami Hirota.

Mr Hirota is President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kokumin Kyosai co-op (National Federation of Workers and Consumers Kyosai Cooperatives, formerly known as Zenrosai or the National Federation of Workers and Consumers Insurance Cooperatives until 1 June 2019 when the organization rebranded itself). Based on the cooperative principle, Kokumin Kyosai co-op provides mutual help using insurance system called “Kyosai” in Japanese for its members. It was established in 1957 and has mainly been run by trade union members as a part of the workers’ welfare movement: however, its service expands to workers and consumers in the Japanese community today.

Mr Hirota joined Hitachi, Ltd., one of the leading electronics companies in Japan. Soon he also started to serve in the trade union and held senior positions in its group unions throughout his career. He joined Kokumin Kyosai co-op as Head Director of Kanagawa prefectural office in 1998, and then became Head Director of Eastern Regional Office in 2015. In August 2019, he was elected as President of Kokumin Kyosai co-op by the General Assembly.

Mr Hirota is also a member of the ICMIF Board of Directors.

Kokumin Kyosai co-op will be represented at the forthcoming ICMIF Biennial Conference (12-15 November 2019, Auckland, New Zealand) by a number of delegates from the organization including the new President, Mr Hirota.

The Managing Director of Kokumin Kyosai co-op, Koh Tominaga, will be a panelist in the Conference session entitled “Seeing through the eyes of the customer” which will examine the opportunities for cooperatives/mutuals to strengthen their relationships with their member-customers, and manage the balance between providing customer convenience through technology and service excellence that comes with the cooperative/mutual business model.