Japan Parliament Enacts Consumer Agency Bill

Tokyo, May 29 (Jiji Press)--Japan's House of Councillors at a
plenary session Friday unanimously voted into law a bill to establish a new
government agency that will integrate consumer affairs administration, which
is currently undertaken by multiple agencies.
The bill was approved at the House of Representatives last month.
The new agency, to be set up under the wing of the Cabinet Office,
will analyze consumer complaints and inquiries and, if necessary, call on
related government agencies to give instructions to businesses.
In case there are no relevant regulations, the consumer agency
itself will issue improvement orders to prevent troubles from happening or
expanding to protect consumers.
The bill was first submitted to parliament in September last year,
but deliberations did not start until March this year.
After negotiations, the ruling and opposition camps reached an
agreement to revise a government-proposed original bill in a way to give
stronger authority to an experts' panel that will monitor consumer affairs
administration.