The Act on Promotion of Consumer Education is the first law that explicitly assigned the role of training citizens to the government. However, due to the limited resources of the local governments, the more abstract the ideology of the law, the less the policy is considered a priority. In order for local governments to place higher priority on consumer education among other policies, it is important to present consumer education as a political request (i.e. focusing on policies that can foster the creation of ethical consumers with self-responsibility as a main constituent) rather than an ideological one (i.e. focusing solely on creating ethical consumers).

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The aim of this study was to find new insight with regard to structuring consumer education and including it in schooling. First, this work focused on living environment studies and the period for integrated studies and it ascertained the significance of those subjects. Second, this work discusses the fostering of leaders in consumer education based on discussions regarding the inclusion of environmental education and education for sustainable development (ESD) in the curriculum. This work then proposes that a schedule for consumer education be created at individual schools.

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This study researches business sector challenges regarding customer care and consumer education, consumer behavior, and consumer-oriented management by examining surveys conducted by ACAP. Consumer-oriented management, which includes actions such as responding to the consumer’s voice and sharing information within the company, is progressing; however, the following challenges continue to exist: ・ Efforts to educate employees and provide information to consumers are delayed. ・ Complaints from consumers have changed dramatically with changes in society, which bring with them attendant changes in consumer attitude. ・ Dealing with social media and the information-driven society is an issue that urgently needs addressing.

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This study has focused on two local governments to which specialists were appointed for the purpose of consumer education in 1995, and a historical review was performed to trace the main factors that had led to its eventual institutionalization. Based on an inspection of previous cases, this study had also explored potential developments of placing such consumer education specialist within local consumer administration. Results showed that the national government needs to be proactively involved, such as setting guidelines, because internal reasons within local governments are not sufficient for creating and solidly establishing institutions. Furthermore, as a key person was present both inside and outside the administration in order to institutionalize a system, members of academic societies should act in a more organized manner so that they would be able to fulfill such role.

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The objective of this study is to propose a syllabus for consumer citizenship education, aimed at teaching university students “consumer legal literacy” – one of the required literacies for citizen- consumers. The resulting content not only aims to facilitate students’ acquisition of consumer legal literacy, but also addresses how when said students become teachers themselves that they can ensure students acquire this knowledge. The plan consists of 15 lessons and introduces active learning, simulated lessons, lesson planning, and materials creation.

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This paper reports an attempt to build a cycle model to link and coordinate diverse initiatives related to consumer education through the collaboration of various stakeholders supporting the local community. Currently, the region has insufficient collaboration of the diverse initiatives involving consumer education. With a particular focus on the younger generation, notably with a focus on high school-aged students, this effort was to foster active consumers equipped to take action – to “learn” “communicate” “enlighten” – on behalf of other consumers.

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A healthy diet and dietary habits from early elementary school are important for not only physical and mental development but also health after maturation. For this reason, schools have begun providing dietary education with special programs focusing on encouraging vegetable consumption during childhood. One such program resulted in a significant difference in the quantity of vegetables consumed and blood sugar, TG, and HDL levels between children in the program and a control group. These findings indicate that consistent implementation of dietary education programs throughout elementary school may help change children’s food consumption, and that education for children helps them grow into and live as healthy adults.

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This paper showed the necessity of a detailed goals list based on a new perspective called education assessment theory as a means of promoting consumer education in schools. Educational assessment theory is based on the idea that the goal needs to be clear and shown in detail to a level that interpretational difference does not occur. However, it was confirmed this time that the consumer education image map and the courses of study as an existing goals lists are not a detailed goals of the level considered by the education assessment theory. From now on, it is required to create a detailed goals list that assumes being used at schools.

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We examined the effectiveness of the “Procedure Manual” in teaching consumer safety when intoroduced in making “circular beanbags with rubber bands” in home economics lessons. The students were asked to make the “Manuals”, and to conduct mutual evaluations.We then verified the effectiveness of these “Manuals” on teaching through analyzing them and through the students’questionnaires.As a result, the class evaluation by the students gained a high rating of 3.90 on average.There were 11.7 statements on average related to safety and security in the “Manuals.” The “Manual” helped the students cite 6.7 safety-related symbols per person.It also helped them cite 151 consumer warning chart symbols,nearly 60 percent of the total number.

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In this study, the recent trends and theoretical considerations on first-year experience and consumer education in universities were taken into account, the significance of introducing consumer education into a university first year was searched for, and these lessons were attempted. It is considered that if it was introduced in the first year, consumer education can be promoted in universities and that there is also significance in providing consumer education from examining educational content and educational methods. Therefore, active learning, of providing recommendations on economic issues in Yamanashi Prefecture, was attempted for the first year students of the University of Yamanashi.

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Mini-München is a children’s city planning game originating in Germany. Over the past few years, several researchers have studied Mini-München; however, no study has analyzed the image map. This study verifies the possibility of consumer education through “Japanese Mini-München” using the image map. We conducted a questionnaire survey on participants given to 41 children's executive committee members and 20 adult staff. The results obtained are as follows: (1) “Japanese Mini-München” has many situations to achieve the goal of the image map and is effective as consumer education. (2) We expect the results of this study to provide learning opportunities in the fields of “Construction of Consumer Citizen Society”. (3) There was a divergence in opinion among the children’s executive committee members and adult staff members.

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This study investigated the possibilities of improving the financial well-being of high school and college students through consumer citizenship education, which enhances their financial knowledge. In this study, the financial well-being of college respondents tended to improve once they obtained financial knowledge. Further, those who scored highly in financial knowledge questions could improve their financial well-being, gather information, and save money to overcome their financial anxiety. Therefore, this study implies that on achieving high financial literacy, one recognizes the significance of saving money and staying financially healthy, which helps them to overcome their financial anxiety.

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The present study investigates the understanding of university students not only of the nature of signing a contractual agreement as well as carrying out all contractual requirements, but also the feelings of students that they have understood their contractual obligations. A group of university students were examined to assess their understanding of contracts, and the collected data was analyzed. Results indicated that only about 40% of students understood contractual issues experienced by consumers in the example cases. The study suggests that providing education to students in legal knowledge to increase their understanding of the nature of contracts, as well as consumer education, may improve their awareness of major issues experienced by consumers.

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An increase in the rate of elderly people using medical services, the high proportion of living expenses used on medical expenses, an increase in problems related to medical services, the asymmetry of medical information and the increase in Internet usage rate are characteristics of the present medical care era in an aging society. In such a context a medical service that can preserve the health and living standards of senior medical consumers is essential. Therefore, this paper aimed to clarify the key characteristics of consumer behavior amongst senior medical consumers. The research method employed the AISCEAS model to examine cases of medical service purchasing related to injuries incurred through falls, which are common among the elderly. The model was chosen due to its high level of suitability for the analysis of Internet based purchasing processes. Results revealed the following behavioural characteristics among consumers, (1), changes in mental and physical condition will affect decision making process, (2), motivations for using service are generally urgent or sudden in nature, (3), a need to develop ability to better utilize information related to decision making, and (4), the necessity of external support.

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In this paper, I examined the development and evaluation of implementation of teaching materials for general college students and noted issues. The mean overall class evaluation was high (4 out of 5 points), but variations in evaluations each time were noted. Especially when focused on evaluations of important teaching materials, compared with the times of low evaluations, in the times of high evaluations, there was more time, the number of words in the teaching materials was fewer times of group work. In order to increase the evaluation of teaching materials, it is important to carefully select the contents and ensure that classes have much time to cover the contents.

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Consumer education materials on housing that we have used in previous studies were examined in their effects in supporting independent living for mentally handicapped individuals. These materials are used in the “Diamond Ranking Game for Housing Selection,” which ranks nine different housing conditions in three life stages. In this game, players set out nine cards in a way chosen by each participant. Then, in a group discussion, consumers gain the ability to select housing and do life planning. The subjects were 16 consumers in a welfare work place. The results showed that “contracts, transactions, and household finances” were not regarded as important. A partial modification of the education materials was effective for planning for mentally handicapped consumers’.

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This research aims at personal finance education for a smooth transition from university to society. A survey was conducted before and after the Personal Finance Education course for the fourth-year university students. Results showed that they felt uneasy about retirement expenses and personal finance before the course, although their consumer consciousness was solid. On the other hand, they were not knowledgeable about specific financial contents or how to obtain such information. After attending the class, their interest in and motivation towards personal finance improved. The students felt that the content was difficult, and it was suggested that personal finance education should be introduced to the course of career education and that continuing study was necessary.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify the actual situation of product accidents caused by consumers, and to discuss the contents of consumer product safety education. In this study, product accidents reported from 2007 to 2014 are analyzed, and the data leads to the conclusion that consumer product safety education must include several components. These necessary components are: learning knowledge of science related to accident risks, ways to report an accident, recall information access, information about routine inspections, and how to purchase safe products. Consumer product safety education should be given not only at home but also at school so that all children can have access to this information.

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From the perspective of consumer education, this study used a questionnaire to establish a relationship between the different kinds of activities and the learning that results from each kind of activity in the context of an educational farming program run by farmers. The study also examined the impact of this program on the participating farmers by conducting an interview-based survey. The results indicate the possibility that those involved in the program saw a change in their behavior as consumers. In addition, the results suggest that there was a relationship between the content and the lessons learned during the education process. Furthermore, the results indicate that operating a program of this type has had a positive impact on the farmers.

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The purpose of this study is to examine whether the consumer education material developed in the course of this study is effective as a means of training consumer-citizens, and to check its versatility. We carried out 15 classes to teach various discussion skills, and planned and conducted a workshop where students themselves were able to experience the role of a teacher by using these skills. We assigned description-style questionnaires and reports after every class, and analyzed the changes in the contents of the descriptions using the technique of text mining. From this, we found that there was an increase in descriptions that consider public viewpoints to be more important as compared to descriptions about personal profits. This shows that these classes were effective in nurturing the qualities of consumer-citizens.

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