As the government began handing out questionnaires on Sept. 20 for the census survey conducted every five years, the National Consumers Affairs Center has been asking citizens to be on the alert for people impersonating government census workers who ask for personal information.
The government census aims to cover everyone living in Japan, regardless of nationality, in order to compile up-to-date statistics on the country's population and household profiles. People are obligated to respond either by accessing the response website, submitting the paper questionnaire by mail or handing it directly to a census taker by Oct. 8.
In September 2020, the last time the survey was conducted, a woman in her 40s consulted the center after someone claiming to be a census taker visited her home and asked over the intercom about her family members and their incomes.
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