More than three and a half years have passed since a law to protect whistle-blowers went into force in April 2006. The law was enacted in response to the courage demonstrated by corporate whistle-blowers in bringing irregularities to light. Revelations in publicized cases have included allegations that a carmaker was hiding customer complaints about vehicle defects and that a food company had mislabeled imported beef as domestically produced beef.
Unfortunately, the law's effectiveness is being undermined by its failure to sufficiently protect whistle-blowers.
Jurisdiction over the law was recently transferred from the Cabinet Office to the Consumer Affairs Agency. It is expected that the functions scattered among various ministries to accept information from whistle-blowers will be unified under the agency. In a related move, the Tokyo Bar Association is providing free counseling by telephone for whistle-blowers on the third Tuesday of every month from 10 a.m. to noon through the end of March 2010. (The telephone number is 03-3581-2236.)