By a unanimous vote, the Upper House of the Diet has enacted bills to create a government agency to promote consumers' rights. A consumer agency is likely to be established by this fall at the earliest. The agency should strive to realize the ideal of former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who in April 2008 proposed its establishment by calling for a change in the government's stance — from the producer-first principle to the consumer-first principle.
The new agency, to be manned by about 200 officials, will comprise two major components: one for directly handling problems that damage the health and interests of consumers, and the other for issuing demands to other government ministries and agencies to take appropriate action.
The function of the first component will include instructing enterprises, monitoring product labels, controlling fraudulent business methods and dealing with problems that existing laws cannot handle, such as deaths from choking on konnyaku jelly.