After its inception roughly a year ago, the Consumer Safety Investigation Commission came up with a goal of handling 100 consumer product accident cases per year but ended up taking up just six, with none ending in a conclusive report.
The Consumer Affairs Agency unit says it is being careful in probing the causes of the accidents, but that its staff of seven part-time members — who are supported by 38 experts, also part time — is preventing it from promptly fulfilling its mission.
"I think we had assumed quite a big role," Yotaro Hatamura, head of the commission, said at a press conference in late September just days ahead of its first anniversary on Oct. 1.