The is an administrative agency of the
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...
of Japan responsible for
consumer protection
Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...
established on September 1, 2009.
Under the law passed on December 10, 2022,
the Consumer Affairs Agency now also has jurisdiction over the issue of donations between religious juridical persons and their followers. Until then, the
Agency for Cultural Affairs
The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture.
The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion.
Overview
The age ...
had jurisdiction over all administration related to religious juridical persons. This legislation was intended to address the
Unification Church
The Unification Church () is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. It was founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea, as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unificatio ...
's "
Spiritual sales", which has become a serious problem in Japanese society.
Background
Individual ministries had their own relevant departments, but after a number of scandals involving food poisoning and various types of accidents caused by substandard products manufactured in or imported to Japan, it was decided that an independent body was needed to protect the interests of consumers. Consumers often did not know where to report problems, and if they did, complaints were often passed around from place to place inside the bureaucracies. In addition, past administrative policies tended to focus more on the needs and interests of producers and industry, rather than consumers.
The original plans for the agency were made in January 2008 under the administration of
Liberal Democratic Party Prime Minister
Yasuo Fukuda, after a high-profile food poisoning case of Chinese dumplings. The bill to create the agency cleared the lower house of the Japanese diet unanimously on April 16, 2009 under the administration of
Tarō Asō and with the cooperation of the then-opposition
Democratic Party of Japan
The was a Centrism, centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist:
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* to Centre-left politics, centre-left, Liberalism, liberal or Social liberalism, social-liberal List of political parties in Japan, ...
.
It was originally planned to open in October 2009 or later, but leading up to the
2009 election Prime Minister Aso brought forward the opening to September 1, 2009, two days after the election. As a consequence, the agency was not well-prepared and faced many initial challenges. Shunichi Uchida, a former vice-minister of the Cabinet Office, was appointed the first head of the agency.
[The Japan Time]
Consumer Affairs boss underscores new, yet tenuous, role September 9 2009
Retrieved on August 14, 2012
References
External links
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Cabinet Office (Japan)
Government ministries of Japan
Government agencies of Japan
Consumer rights agencies
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
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