In a country where the State was at one time viewed as all-encompassing, the public interest equated with the interests of producers and the private sphere dismissed as the locus of greed, disorder, and incivility (Harootunian 1974), the very notion of civil society (shimin shakai) as a realm of autonomous individuals connected to neither the market nor the State is imbued with almost radical overtones. Be that as it may, many postwar social movement activists have upheld shimin shakai not only as a wellspring of their protests against the lingering supremacy of State and producer interests in Japanese politics, but also as the ultimate beneficiary of that activism. This has been particularly apparent within the organized consumer movement – a movement that, since its inception during the immediate aftermath of World War II, has struggled not only to represent the interests of the country's expanding consumer constituency to State authorities, but also to educate that constituency about their rights and responsibilities as consumers and Citizens (shimin). Their ultimate aim in this regard has been to build a consumer society that is independent of both State and market control. In the face of a traditionally passive political culture and a strong, pro-producer State, however, their efforts have met with mixed results.