Le Conseiller en Economie Sociale Familiale (CESF) plays a major role in resolving issues of over-indebted debtors in France. The main task of CESF is to provide comprehensive counseling regarding overall household management and life planning for multiple loan debtors. In addition, The Banque de France (The Central Bank of France) contributes to solving monetary aspects of this problem. Multiple debt committees are established in bank branches and develop repayment plans for the benefit of multiple loan debtors. This is evidence of the breadth of welfare policy in France, where public institutions provide solutions to personal debt issues without charge. The French framework is a useful model for solving issues affecting Japanese multiple debtors.

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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.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify the lifestyles and consumption behaviors of current consumers and to confirm whether the activities of consumer leaders communicating with a company are effective for consumer education. The main finding are: 1) Current consumers prefer information dissemination in their neighborhoods, place importance on environment and safety, and are not particular about price. These tendencies are stronger in consumer leaders. 2) Multiple types of consumer education for consumer leaders is necessary to change consumer lifestyles and consumption behaviors. 3) Through exposure to educational activities conducted by consumer leaders, consumers begin to prioritize values other than price.

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This paper focused on the Carbon Foot Print (CFP) in order to reduce CO2 emission in the households. The spread of CFP among people could be promoted through their environmental values and consciousness. This paper surveyed the awareness and consciousness of people on CFP as well as their environmental values by analyzing the questionnaires. As a result, more than 90 % of these possess environmental values and they think their lifestyle is closely connected to environmental problems. More than 80% of them think environmental problems are not resolved only by the technological innovation or expenditure. On the other hand, the awareness of CFP is very low(10%). From these results, it is important to enhance their consciousness with environmental values through CFP. In order to do that, we proposed new expressions for CFP and we indicate how the marks are employed in consumer education.

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While the importance of “Sustainable Consumption” increases internationally, the purpose of this paper is to clarify following points. First, it is not only from the perspective of support to developing countries by developed countries, but also the attitude of learning from developing countries is important. Second, the successful example of biogas and environmental education in Nepal lies in consumer education in Japan is to be done in the future. As a result, when considering the relationship between consumer education in developing countries, the possibility to exceed fair trade stereotype has confirmed.

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This study aimed to consider the way of financial education in College based on the results of survey of college students Japan and the United States. Results are as follows: 1. We should consider the financial education curriculum based on the actual conditions of Japanese college students about Personal Finance. 2. For Japanese college students do not have to take most of the financial education through high school, we should be included in the curriculum learning content of high school at the college. 3. Financial education for Japanese college students should be reference to a lot of what they learned in high school in the United States. 4. In liberal arts education at college, we need to create a curriculum that includes a wide range of personal financial, perform, evaluate and consider.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate how medical consumers can protect themselves by employing an active agenda of 'rights and responsibilities'. Furthermore, it explores how an active medical consumer model can be developed within a consumer education program. In order to construct the active guidelines based on rights and responsibilities, the researchers investigated inquiry counters in prefectural medical safety support centers - which hold a neutral position between patients and medical workers - and staff working at citizen advice centers (clerical staff, nurses and health nurses, pharmacists, doctors and dentists). A survey was sent to 297 centers (excluding some areas) and 1,188 individuals. There was a valid response of 334 individuals (28.1%). The active agenda was arrived at by dividing responses to the 78 survey elements related to consumer rights and responsibilities into 3 categories: "there is a right", "there is a responsibility", "there is both a right and a responsibility". In terms of the specific character of the guidelines, results revealed the behavior range related to rights and responsibilities is ambiguous, greater importance is attached to holding responsibility, than having rights and the exchange of detailed information about treatments between patients and medical workers is very important to both parties. In order to develop a consumer education integrated with medical safety and the informational filed, it is necessary to innovate the current approach by compartmentalizing, specializing and broadening the content of active guidelines related to every subject in the existing curriculum. Through practicing such an educational approach medical consumers can develop consciousness of their role as one illuminated through a conception of active right and responsibilities.

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This study examines Japanese teacher training programs for consumer education in comparison with those in South Korea. The Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) conducts a total of 30 hours of training over five days, scheduled over an extended holiday. Offered in cooperation with the Office of Education as an occupational training program, this training can directly help teachers advance their careers. Pilot school teachers and KCA researchers serve as lecturers. Many aspects of the training conducted in South Korea could be used to help improve the training offered in Japan, such as the incorporation of training materials derived from day-to-day living environments and information on trends related to children. Hopefully this will lead to real progress on future instructor training systems, and to the development of training programs that incorporate new trends.

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“The Act on Promotion of Consumer Education” was enforced in December, 2012. In order to promote consumer education, it is important to foster human resources. In 2008, The Education Program for Citizen Instructors was announced. The purpose of this study is to support this program by applying recent learning theories, especially situated learning theory. Lectures given at the Setagaya Consumer Affairs Center in 2012 were examined as were human resources in consumer education. A major finding was that follow-up training is important for citizen instructions’ education.

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This study investigated how personal financial (PF) education impacts college students’ financial knowledge and financial confidence. Focusing on Iowa State University, it addressed students’ expectations with regard to PF education and other forms of college assistance to support their financial well-being. Of those students with PF education experience, 31.9% were “extremely” or “quite” confident in their overall money management skills, compared with 25.3% of students without PF education experience. The study revealed both the demand for PF education and its effects; provision of up- to-date information regarding real-life issues was identified as especially useful. PF education to improve college students’ financial well-being could best be offered as a liberal arts core program targeting freshmen or sophomores, regardless of department or major.

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The consumer culture surrounding children is changing dramatically. When transactions are conducted directly by children without parental involvement, problems often arise. This study aimed to achieve the following: 1) Clarify the reality of children's involvement with the surrounding consumer culture, focusing on elementary, junior high, and high school students. 2) Clarify how their involvement with consumer culture influences their sense, of monetary value. A survey was conducted among elementary, junior high, and high school students to analyze the situations they encounter. The results revealed that rulemaking by parents is not enough. Children's sense of the value of money diminishes as they gain more experience in games, and their sense of ethics likewise deteriorates.

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Nowadays, most teenagers use the Internet, and many of them do online shopping and Internet banking. Based on such situations, the purpose of this research was to develop learning materials and a class lesson plan to teach how to safely use online shopping. We clarified key points for effective use of online shopping, and created a class plan, worksheets and online simulation learning materials for senior high school home economics classes. Six 2nd year senior high school classes were involved in this research. It was demonstrated that the class plan, worksheets and online simulation learning materials were feasible for a one class-hour period, and improved the students’ knowledge of safe online shopping.

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Caution marks and the accompanying notes were extracted from 28 home economics textbooks for elementary and junior high schools from two publishers in order to compare their shapes, colors, and verbal expressions by year of authorization, school type, and publisher. The results indicated that these marks and notes were specific to the respective textbooks and that there was no uniformity among the different school types or publishers. In order to emphasize the ideas of safety and caution and to establish it effectively among students, it is recommended that general caution marks be standardized and that uniform guidelines on caution marks be used in elementary and junior high school home economics textbooks.

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In consumer education, product safety is an important theme. It is necessary to show consumer positioning takes a stand against consumption. The present warning system assumes that all consumers would read, would understand, and would avoid risk. In this paper, it will be shown clearly by a questionnaire with what kind of posture consumers have faced to warning usually. The questionnaire had the products of 31 items, asked consumer’s posture, and obtained 772 effective reply. As a result, the consumers who have read and avoid risk are 35% of all. This reason was because many unnecessary information exists in the present marking. And in consumer education, the real image of the consumers who should take into consideration became clear.

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Many matters which we can utilize as teaching materials for "consumer education by means of law-related education" are contained in the new-published textbooks of Social studies, Civics and Home Economics. In these textbooks, the materials that we can improve the learning effect by the cooperation of both subjects are included. By working on the cooperation between subjects, we also may be able to compensate for the insufficient number of hours of teaching. The cooperation between subjects is necessary and effective; however, many teachers have thought that it would be difficult. This paper suggests techniques that teachers can employ in a time efficient manner and further suggests how the legal profession could support this.

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The purpose of this paper is to verify whether Mini-Műnchen, a city planning simulation for German children, is an effective educational tool for teaching consumer independence in Japanese consumer education classes. The main results indicate that: 1) Mini-Műnchen is an effective tool for increasing consumer independence in consumer education classes as well as developing student identity, consumer skills, and consumer citizenship. However, improvements in global citizenship were limited. 2) The effect of Mini-Műnchen is stronger with German students than with Japanese students in terms of consumer education. 3) It will be necessary to introduce an international aspect into the Japanese Mini-Műnchen in the future.

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The aim of this paper is to clarify the awareness and current situation of mothers regarding the sustainable disposal of children’s clothing. Questionnaires were sent to mothers whose children went to kindergartens or nursery schools in Otsu City. Questionnaire responses were analyzed using statistical testing and factor analysis. The main results were: 1) The most common way for mothers to reuse and recycle used clothing was to give them to their relatives and friends. 2) Mothers were not particularly concerned about whether the clothes their young children wore were new or used. A commonly held belief was that public places, such as schools, should be provided for clothing exchanges.

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This paper focused on people with intellectual disabilities as consumers in need. A survey of teachers and staff of facilities and nonprofit organizations was conducted on life and money management . The results indicated that there is a demand for lectures on consumer education for individual and their families, however specific methodologies could not be determined. This paper proposes that the adult guardianship system and daily management of money support programs for self-reliance in daily life are not sufficient. Other support systems are needed and require the examination of social support as well as defining disabilities in the Consumer Education Promotion Act.

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This study proposes and examines the effectiveness of an education method that uses receipt profiling (a group discussion in which an individual is profiled based on the information gathered from one week’s worth of shopping receipts) as a teaching aid to foster critical thinking in money management. In applying this method to a high school class, it is possible to understand individual students’ sense of monetary value, knowledge of products, perspective on food safety, etc., through students’ remarks. In addition, improvements in critical thinking were confirmed by having each student read data and state an opinion while presenting a rationale. The research indicates that this teaching aid is effective in fostering critical thinking in money management.

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The purpose of this study was to determine effective methods for providing life-rebuilding support for over-indebted debtors. A counselor from Okane-no-Gakko Kumamoto was interviewed about her cases, and effective methods corresponding to life-rebuilding support were determined by observing changes in clients' conditions due to support consultations. The results indicated that effective methods included building trusting relationships, clarifying problems, and providing appropriate support. These correspond to the need for interviews to progress in a positive manner, which is a requirement for assisting clients in life-rebuilding. Another effective method involves respecting the self-determination of the client. This corresponds to recognizing the clients' own values which play an important part in life-rebuilding support.

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A survey was conducted in four areas of consumer citizenship education of university students’ consumer behavior regarding clothing and housing habits in order to examine the development of systematic consumer education materials. The survey found that gender influenced the areas of safety as well as environmental responsibility and ethics in regards to both clothing and housing habits. The survey also found that family situations influenced the areas of environmental responsibility and ethics regarding clothing habits; and the areas of safety, contracts, transactions, and household finances regarding housing habits. We discuss how to systematically educate students by using lesson materials on clothing and housing habits, together with material development in dietary habits from previous studies.

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The basic law for consumers clarifies the rights and responsibilities of consumers. To support the autonomy of consumers, the inclusion of consumer education in school curriculums has been recognized. This study uses a welfare society research framework and focuses on senior high school home economics courses. In order to foster the well-being of the aging population, the focus is on social welfare. The study provides guidelines on integrating human rights education with both social and elderly welfare. It is suggested that this program can be used to expand learning opportunities within consumer education.

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A lesson was conducted using teaching materials which were based on an article suggesting the need for home economics education to prevent multiple loan debt. As a result, students became more aware of the problem of multiple loan debt and developed a positive attitude towards preventing the problem. Additionally, it was found that learning about the problem of multiple loan debt in relation to household budgets had a positive effect on students acquiring knowledge about the subject.

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In 2006, Community General Support Centers were given the responsibility to assist the elderly with consumer problems. However, differences were found between centers, for example some carried out consumer awareness activities while other centers tried to solve problems. It is suggested that local networks should be developed to improve the delivery of consumer education on a localized basis.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify internet use in the consumer education field through a survey of home economics teachers. The survey investigated instructor knowledge about the internet and its use in class. Although many teachers utilize the internet for information search or online shopping, they are not accustomed with using avatars, SNS, and online games which are popular among young people. 86.7% of the teachers indicated that internet literacy in using cell phones is needed in home economics education programs.

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This paper is the latest report of research on high school students and mobile phone use. Mobile phones are extremely popular with high school students who seem to be able to master them more easily than adults. The mobile phone brought big influence to the structure of high school students' life time and how to make relationships with their friends. However, investigating high school students' mobile phone use indicates that students have little or no awareness of the fees and costs related to owning a mobile phone. At the same time, consumer education about mobile phones is not provided by schools. In response to this, the author presents teaching materials which can be used to educate students about the consumer awareness of mobile phone fees and costs, and proposes that such education should become part of the consumer education curriculum.

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Alcohol, in its different forms, affects peoples’ daily lives in various ways. We chose the topic of alcohol for a series of seminars for consumers. Scientific experiments and chemical demonstrations were conducted from two perspectives to help consumers understand the following risks: 1) Drinking and health which was examined by producing ethanol in a bioreactor experiment. 2) Exploring the danger of alcohol in relationship to household goods by viewing the results of an experiment demonstrating alcohol’s flammability. Building upon our previous research, we report on the seminar with a focus on the second risk point.

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