Akira KurimotoAkira Kurimoto is a professor of the co-operative program at the Institute for Solidarity-based Society at Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan. He has been a board member/chief researcher of the Consumer Co-operative Institute, Japan since 1998. He servedas the Chair of the International Co-operative Alliance Research Committee (2001-2005) and is the Chair of the ICA Asia Pacific Research Committee. He helped to found the of the Asia Pacific Co-operative Research Partnership in 2014. His discipline is in legal science and his main research interests cover co-operative laws, co-operative economics, co-operative history, corporate governance, food supply chain, health and social care co-operatives, and the third sector/social economy. He has published over 30 English papers in co-operative theory/practice and the social economy including International Handbook of Cooperative Law, The Worth of the Social Economy, The Palgrave Handbook of Volunteering, Civic Participation, and Nonprofit Associations, Global History of Consumer Co-operation since 1850. He has edited multiple books including Toward Contemporary Co-operative Studies: Perspectives from Japan's Consumer Co-ops. Read More Read Less