Has consumer education been improving in Japan?

Abstract

The 2008 White Paper on the National Lifestyle evaluated consumer education in Japan. Afterwards, the Consumer Agency was established and the government made efforts to enhance it. To examine the development, I tried to explore whether any signal to change were observed since 2008. This paper only examined it in terms of consumer contract. However, according to the data, I cannot conclude that it has been improved since 2008. As the White Paper proposed, Japanese society should move towards a society of consumer citizenship. In this regards, not only knowledge but also a clear understanding of the backgrounds of consumer markets and behavior as well as proactive involvement are important factors. We need further development including evaluation criteria for consumer citizenship education.