Background, Practice, and Effect ofConsumer Education in Japan
Hiroaki SAKURAI1
1Member of SGB, Associate Professor, Dept. of Intercultural Studies, Gakushuin Women’s College(Address 3-20-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8650, Japan)
E-mail: hiroaki.sakurai@gakushuin.ac.jp

This study introduces the background, practice, and effect of the consumer education in Japanese highschool. Although the discussion of the consumer education has been positively and actively promoted inJapan for more than half a century, most of them are written only in Japanese. As a result, Japan’s experience of the consumer education is hard to share to the abroad. Results of this review study are summarized
as following three parts. First, the introducing the consumer education, including enacting the law, is theresult of efforts for a long time. Second, it is now hurried up for Japanese high school students to acquire
the knowledge as a consumer due to not only the technological advance but also lowering the adulthood
age from 20 years old to 18 years old. Third, the effect of the consumer education is seen significantly
from empirical studies although the number of studies about the effect of the consumer education is still
not many. In conclusion, it is important to continue efforts to foster “wide” consumers through the consumer education.
Key Words : consumer education, high school, Japan, door to the societyof the consumer education in the U.S. and Europe began from the 1920s1). Although the claim of the necessity of the consumer education began in Japan
from the 1960s1), 2), the law of the consumer education was enacted in 2012. After that, the material wasdeveloped and the class began.
Although the discussion of the consumer education
was developed for more than half a century, English
literature is not necessarily many. This study summarizes and introduces the movement of the consumer education from the background, practice, andimpact of the high school consumer education.

1. INTRODUCTION
Consumer education is important to survive as aclever consumer in the complicated society. Although consumer education covers large fields such aseconomics, consumer merchandise, and the home
economy, this study states the meaning of the consumer education from the point of view in economics. The necessity of the consumer education lies in
the asymmetric information. Consumers purchase theworse one since they do not have as much information and knowledge as retailers. Typical example
in economics is purchasing the used car, called“lemon.” Another example is the architecture orhousing. Preventing the asymmetric information,
regulations or rules by the government are allowed ineconomics. In Japan, the automobile is a typical example. Repairments and periodical checks of the automobile must be recorded and they are the guarantee
in selling the automobile. In addition, Product Liability Law (PL Law) was enacted in 1995, and products
in many fields are liable for companies. Still consumers’ knowledge was not increased regardless of theincrease of notices from the produced companies.
Although the regulation is mainly for selling companies, the education for consumers are another way
to overcome the asymmetric information. The history

2. BACKGROUND: RECENT HISTORY OF
THE CONSUMER EDUCATION IN JAPANThe necessity of the consumer education isclaimed as important since the 1960s. Until the beginning of the 21st century, producers’ liability wasmain part to prevent from the asymmetric information. This chapter focuses on the promotion of thepolicy framework in the 21st century. Nishimura1)
chapter 3 was helpful in Japanese.
Basic Act on Consumer Policies was altered in
2004, and Promotion of Activities to Raise Consumer
Awareness and Consumer Education was enacted.
Former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda denoted that1the relief of the national life in 2007, and was willingto establish the Consumer Affairs Agency.
In Japan, establishing new agency needs the newlaw. The act of establishment of the Consumer Affairs Agency was passed in 2009. At that time, supplementary resolution of the consumer education wasdecided on the parliament. Based on the supplementary resolution of the parliament, the Act of the Promotion of Consumer Education was enacted on December 12, 2012.
This law contains the responsibility for the national government to precede the basic principle andfor the local governments (prefectures and municipalities) promotes. In addition, Consumer Education
Promotion Council was established.

decided in Feb., 2018 by related four ministries, Consumer Affairs Agency, Ministry of Law, Ministry ofEducation, and Ministry of Finance, the Governmentof Japan5). In this program, “Door to Society” is provided for all 47 prefectures, all high schools in Tokushima prefecture use “Door to Society” as the example, and consumer education equivalent to “Doorto Society” is expected to held in all prefectures in2020. For attaining this goal, experts such as lawyer
and consultant for consumers are expected to use theknowledge, and high school teachers are expected toget training of the consumer education (Fig. 2).

3.
PRACTICEOFCONSUMEREDUCATION IN JAPAN’S HIGH SCHOOL(1) Recent problems of consumer policies
Consumer commission3) summarizes the recent
problems about the consumer policies. Related to theconsumer education is as follows.
First, prevailing the ICT society under the aging
society sometimes causes serious problem for someconsumers. More consumers have come to purchasethrough the internet. In addition, internet shopping
mall and sharing economy make normal people
seller. Settlement system also promoted not only cash
but also credit card, prepaid card, and internet banking. Second, due to the civil act of Japan change, theage of adulthood was lowered from 20 years old to18 years old age since the April, 2022. Canceling thecontract was prohibited for 18 and 19 age. Third, dueto the globalization, the chance to contract between
Japanese consumers and foreign companies has increased. It is expected that the trouble between Japanese consumers and foreign companies, or between
visiting foreigners and Japanese companies.
Although the consumer education itself covers all
the age such as elementary school, middle school,
adulthood, and senior people, this study focus on thehigh school since the adulthood age will change from
20 to 18 after 2022 due to the change of the civil law.

Fig. 1 12 Questionnaire in the “Door to Society”
Source: Kusakabe6).

Consumer education used “Door toGoal: All high schools in all prefectures

Society”

conduct consumer education

Thenumberofprefectures

All high schools in-

Share the knowledge of the Tokushima-Provide “Door to Society”-Training for the consumer education usedTokushima (56 schools,(2) Material for high school students: “Door to Society”
The working team for youth consumer education isestablished under the Consumer Education Promotion Council in 2015. A textbook called “Door to Society – Become an Independent Consumer through12 Quizzes”4) is made in FY2016 (Fig. 1). This material can study through the 12 basic questions of theconsumer education. In addition, action program ofthe consumer education toward youth generation was6900 students)“Door to Society”-Cooperation among related ministries

Intensive strengthening period

Fig. 2 Action plan for the consumer education in Japan
Source: Action Plan of the consumer education toward youthgeneration5)

2Sakamoto10) asked 290 students from 18 to 25
years old through the web questionnaire about theconsumer trouble from six fields: consumer trouble,
financial management, things and spatial management, rational choice, consumer knowledge, and consumer awareness. Results by using the covariancestructure analysis are shown as following threepoints. First, the degree of consumer knowledge andrational choice does not reduce the probability ofconsumer trouble. Second, financial management
and things and spatial management reduces consumer
trouble. Third, there is no relationship between consumer awareness and consumer trouble. The conclusion is that the traditional home economy, teaching
mainly the financial management and things and spatial management, is quite important for preventing
consumer troubles including civil law change.

4. EFFECT OF JAPAN’S CONSUMEREDUCATION: FROM THE LITERATURE
REVIEW
In Japan, prefectures play an important role forpromoting consumer education since around 70% highschools are operated by prefectures. Therefore, expert
staffs in prefectures and students understanding areimportant. So far, the follow up of the action programis still waiting, but some research results have come topublished. We can see these results as follows.

(1) Local administration staffs
Although the law was enacted by the central government of Japan, consumer education is promoted
together with the local government. Kakino7) shows
the human resources of the consumer education by
the questionnaire to municipalities including 47 prefectures, 20 ordinance-designated city, and 30 prefectural capital cities. As the result shown in Table 1 (especially minimum), some municipal governments
does not necessarily have enough staffs at that time.

(3) Effect of the “Door to Society”
Tokushima Prefecture is located in the easternarea of Shikoku island, and the branch of the Consumer Affairs Agency was moved from Tokyo in
2017. Tokushima prefecture is one of the prefectures
to deal with the consumer trouble or education positively for a long time. One example is exchange personal setting. One high school teacher has been theconsumer policy division in Tokushima prefecture in
every year for more than 10 years, which contributes
to exchange the opinion between the high schools andconsumer policy administrators in Tokushima prefecture (Nishimura1), p. 88). After the branch wasmoved to Tokushima, several researches have been
held.
Tokushima prefecture examines the examinationof the 12 Quizzes before and after the class from 2017
to 2019 for around 6,500 high school students (55high schools) inside the prefecture. Kusakabe6) summarizes the results in English shown in Fig. 3 and 4.
From the result, following three things can be mentioned. First, the percentage of the corrected answers
after the class are higher than those before class. In
addition, many of them are more than 5 percentage
point up due to taking class. Second, cancellation ofcontracts in the second question looks difficult forstudents. Third, there is a significant change in theirawareness as consumers.
Mori and Sakurai11) analyze the questionnaire byusing the individual answers. Results are shown as
the following points. First, consumer education used
by Door to Society continue the effect for severalyears. In addition, consumer knowledge after classreduces the deviation compared with that before theclass. As a result, consumer knowledge in highschool students improve and normalized by using thematerial, Door to Society. Second, effect of consumer
knowledge continues around several years. Since(2) Effect of the consumer education
Kamiyama8) asked 44 junior high school students
for indicating important points of the mail-order advertisement before and after the consumer education
class. Since students can point out important pointsof the contract after the class, the effect of the consumer education is shown. In addition, Kamiyama9)
compares the participatory and lecture types of theconsumer education class in junior high school students. Results are summarized for following points.
First, the effect of participatory type class is high impact although the help from the teacher is necessary.
Second, lecture type class is easy to teach efficiently
although it is difficult to use in their daily life. Third,
the consumer education is combined lecture types
and participatory is the best: first as teaching basic
knowledge, second as discussing for preventing withpreventing from the consumer troubles, and third asconnecting with the basic knowledge and the discussion.
Table 1 The Number of staffs engaged in the consumer administration (A), the consumer education (B), and rate of the consumer education (C)ordinance-designated cities

prefectural capital cities(A)

Prefecture

(B)

(C)

(A)

(B)

(A)

(B)

(C)

mean

19.21

5.68

289.17

12.05

6.11

3.30

12.93

4.93

243.45

median

14

5225

10

6300

43100

Min.

5

130

5250

1040

Max.

85

14

1200

37

11910

86450s.t.d.

16.61

3.05

239.917.28

2.54

209.45

1.74

1.55

85.65

N

47

47

46

20

19

1931

31

30

(C)

(Source) Table 1, Kakino7).

3

contracts, investment, and product liability have relationship for understanding, it is worth teaching together. Third, the relationship between consumer
consciousness and consumer knowledge continues
several years. Fourth, consumer knowledge will increase by the change of the circumstances such as
promoting to upper school or getting the job.
Common things of these researches are following.
First, the consumer education itself has effect to foster the “wise” consumers. Second, the contents arealso important although some topics such as cancelof contracts are relatively difficult to solve. Third,the term of these researches are not a long time.
Questionnaire for a longer time will be expected.

Fig. 4 Results of the Consumer Affairs Questionnaire
Source: Kusakabe6)

5. CONCLUSION
This study introduces the discussion of the consumer education in Japan mainly from the background, the practice in high school students, and theimpact of the consumer education. Struggle of many
related people leading to the promotion of the consumer education should be honored for preventing
from the consumer troubles first of all. In addition,
the movement of the consumer education in Japan forfollowing three parts.
First, many researches in Japan’s consumer education are based on the consumer troubles inclusively.
Since main research targets are financial or food education in Europe and the U.S., the research trend isa bit different. One of the reasons lies in the historyof consumer trouble in Japan. Consumers in Japan
have been annoyed from low qualified goods sincethe 1960s due to the rapid industrialized although thePL law was enacted in 1995. In contrast, many Japanese people did not worry about the financial asset
until the 1990s since the real estate, main Japanese
asset, was increased until the head of the 1990s. In
addition, the interest rate of the bank account was
nearly 5% until the 1980s.
Second, the power for introducing the consumer
education has been much stronger in the 21st century

Fig. 3 Results of the Consumer Affairs Quiz
Source: Kusakabe6)4than that in the 20th century. This is partly because
the prevailing of the ICT society and the internationalsociety, as Consumer Commision3) indicates. In addition, the more parliament members found out theimportance of the consumer policy and the consumer
education as a result of the movement of the society.
Third, prevailing consumer education in highschools is hurried up since lowering adulthood age
from 20 to 18 due to the civil low changed in 2022.
In addition, the consumer education in high school
students is effectively prevailed.

https://www.cao.go.jp/consumer/iinkai/2018/270/doc/20180315_shiryou2_3.pdf).
[6] Kusakabe, H. (2021) “Effectiveness of Classes Using Education Material ‘Door to Society” at High Schools in Tokushima” Presentation material in Policy International
Symposium. (Retrieved September 24, 2022,
https://www.caa.go.jp/en/policy/future/events/assets/future_caa_cms101_210316_01.pdf).
[7] Kakino, S. Human Resources for the Promotion of Consumer Education in Local Consumer Administration, Journal of Japan Academy of Consumer Education 36, pp. 1-11,
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Journal of the Japan Association of Home Economics Education, 63(4), 215-224. (in Japanese)[11] Mori, K., and Sakurai, H. (2022) “The Impact and the Future Resolution of Consumer Education in High School Students in Tokushima ---” Progressive Paper, International
Consumer Policy Research Center, Consumer Affairs
Agency, Tokushima, Japan. (in Japanese) (Retrieved September 24, 2022, https://www.caa.go.jp/policies/future/icprc/assets/future_caa_ams201_220329_01.pdf).

ACKNOWLEDGMENT:. I thank to Consumer Affairs Agency Staffs mainly in Tokushima.
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