Issue 140, July 2024

Preface

• Who is the Financial System for?

Special Feature 1, The Necessity of Revision of the Specified Commercial Transactions Law

• Serialization: Series of “Q&A on the Amendment of the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Act,” No. 3 Internet Shopping
• Revision of the Specified Commercial Transactions Law: Toward a Registration System for Multilevel Marketing Law
• Introduction of a Registration System and Obligation to Investigate Merchants for Payment Agents
• Electronic Delivery of Documents Obligation under the Special Commercial Code and Utilization and Issues of Government Ordinance
• About the Lawyers for Credit Lease Damage Prevention

Special Feature 3, Functional Food, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Red Yeast Rice Supplement

• The Red Yeast Rice Malt Issue Should be an Opportunity to Solve the Health Food Issue
• Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Problem and Functional Foods
• Why Supplement Accidents Could Not Be Prevented, Disregard for Safety and Fragmentation of Risk Management Hidden in the System
• Before using supplements, please be aware of the activities of consumer groups (food safety and citizen hotlines) , Looking back on the “information on functional food defects” that we were able to respond to in the past
• Serialization: What is the truth behind the health hazard incidents caused by health foods?
• Chairman’s Statement on Food Accidents Caused by Functional Foods

Special Feature 4: The Noto Earthquake and Nuclear Power Plant

• Five Issues of Disaster Legislation that Cannot Save the Victims of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake and the Noto Earthquake
• Noto Earthquake and Disaster Prevention
• The Fragile Relationship between Science and Disaster Prevention: The Assumption of a Nankai Trough Giant Earthquake and Temporary Information
• Osaka High Court refuses to grant injunction against operation of Mihama Nuclear Power Plant Unit No. 3
• (Documentation) Statement by Defense Counsel (Regarding the Osaka High Court’s Decision to Dismiss the Immediate Appeal)
• Noto Earthquake and Shiga Nuclear Power Plant

Special Feature 5: Call for Hate Speech Prohibition Law

• Opinion of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations calling for the enactment of the Hate Speech Prohibition Law On the Hate Speech Issue
• The Japanese Government’s refusal to acknowledge the massacre of Koreans in the Great Kanto Earthquake and its background

White Paper on Consumer Law in 2024

• Chapter 1, Consumer Credit (Finance)
• Chapter 2, Credit, Lease and Means of Settlement
• Chapter 3, Specified Commercial Transactions Law
• Chapter 4, Consumer Contract Act and Special Act on Consumer Court Proceedings
• Chapter 5, Securities and Financial Instruments
• Chapter 6, Insurance
• Chapter 7, Futures Trading and Fraudulent Money Laundering Business
• Chapter 8, Defective Products
• Chapter 9, Defective Housing
• Chapter 10, Antitrust Law and Law Against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations
• Chapter 11, Religion
• Chapter 12 , E-Commerce
• Chapter 13, Livelihood Protection and Welfare
• Chapter 14, Others

Series 1, Consumer Legislation, Consumer Affairs Agency, Consumer Commission

• National Consumer Affairs Center, Legislative Proposals Paradigm Shift in Consumer Legal System in Light of Environmental Changes in Consumer Transactions
• The Eighth Consumer Commission and its Initiatives
• Report from the Eighth Consumer Commission
• Opinion of the Consumer Commission for the Next Basic Plan for Consumers
• Major Issues of the National Consumer Affairs Center (2024)
• The Weight of the Consumer Safety Law Article 12, Paragraph 2 Notice
• “Japan Life” Problem: Consumer Affairs Agency Officials Descended from the Government before Administrative Action

Series 2, Business and Commercial Loans

• Trends in 2023 regarding problems derived from factoring damage
• Appropriation and Complaint of a Certain Money Lender for Skipping Across the Line
• Activities of the Article 43 Countermeasures Conference
• The Movement of the Early Crescendo Anti-Creditor Movement (2)
• For Strengthening Democratic Movement in Japan (39), Leaders are Chosen at Camps and Social Gatherings

Series 3, Anti-Poverty and Revitalization

• In a case in which a family member of an elderly person and a person with severe mental disabilities was ordered to pay compensation for the amount equivalent to the regular savings account that was cancelled by the relative, because it was illegal under the National Compensation Law to have the relative, who had physically and financially abused the elderly person, present at the meeting where the application was rejected.
• Tsu District Court Chief Judge Takeuchi Launches “Court Ombudsman” Activities: Rejecting Mislabeled Prices (Vol. 20)
• Supporting the Movement of Council Members to the Administration for the Needy: Against the Abusive Punishment of the Congressional Majority
• Report on “Anytime General Consultation Meeting” Activities

Series 4, Consumer Contract Law and Malicious Business Practices

• First Judgment in the Nation to Recognize Tortious Conduct in a Class Action Lawsuit Against a Rescue Sales Company, Kyoto District Court, January 19, 2024, Judgment (No.2352, 2021)
• Key Points of the Nagoya High Court Judgment of December 14, 2023 and Activities of Defense Counsel
• Supreme Court Ruling on the Requirement of So-Called “Dominance” under the Special Law for Consumer Court Proceedings
• Issues of Amendment to the Consumer Contract Act and Consideration of New Consumer Legislation
• Bankruptcy of a hair removal esthetic salon and holding a consumer credit company liable
• Lawsuit for injunction against “Ipphiyama Yakushiji Temple”
• Claim for refund against three concert management companies
• Questionnaire on Golf Course Cancellation Fees
• Approach to Medical Care from Consumer Issues at Kyoto Consumer Contract Network
• Major Achievements and Issues from the Activities of Consumers Organization Japan

Series 5, Civil Law

• Problems of the Information Disclosure System and the Public Records Management System from the Perspective of the “One-to-One Email” Lawsuit
• The Current Debate on the Revision of the Adult Guardianship System and Future Policy Issues
• Serials, Rental Housing Managers
• Advertising Practice in Light of the Regulation of Stemma

Series 6, Banking, Securities, Insurance and Futures

• Report of Judgment on Social Lending
• Cases in which our firm handled and decided in 2023 that may be of interest to you

Series 7, Product Liability

• Serialization , Potential Defects and Damages of Cardiac Pacemakers and Other Devices for which Recall Intervention was Made by the Manufacturer, Preliminary Ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (March 5, 2015)

Series 8, Defective housing

• Serials: Basics of Defective Housing Disputes (66)

Series 9, Food Safety

• Consumer Affairs Agency to the Supreme Court for Disclosure of Information, Food Administration at a Turning Point

Series 10, Electronic Commerce

• Serialization of Personal Information and the Law No. 2 Constitution and Personal Information Protection

Series 11, Medical Service Law

• Murmur on Fragmentation and Integration of Medical Care

Series 12, Religion

• Decision on the fine against the former Unification Church
• Statement of the National Federation of Bar Associations on Current Issues
• The Core of the Former Unification Church Problem and Suggestions for Support
• Unification Church Problem, Future Issues

Series 13, Pet and Animal Law

• Violation of the Duty to Produce and Disclose Public Records in the Housing and Transfer of Dogs
• History of Compliance with the Lost and Found Law by Hyogo Prefectural Police, Himeji and Shikama Police Stations
• A Society Where Humans and Animals Coexist in Harmony

Series 14, International Consumer Issues

• EU Consumer Law and the European Green Deal, Amendment of the Unfair Trade Practices Directive and theConsumer Rights Directive
• Commentary on the EU Directive on the Right to Repair
• The State of Consumer Law in China (Part 35), The Chinese Civil Code and Consumer Protection (3)

Scholars’ Eye.

• Seeking the Establishment of Parliamentary Democracy
• Legal Nature of Contract for Use of Ossuary and “Average Damage” Caused by Termination (1)
• Obligations to be performed by an installment purchase broker of individual products

Eyes of the Counselor, Activities

• Scary if you don’t know? Rent Obligation Guarantee Agreement
• How long will it last? Trouble of High Charge of Online Game by Minors
• Issues and Considerations on Contracts for Support Services for the Elderly
• Report on the implementation of “Internet Transaction Number 110” in FY2023, Internet advertisement, side business site, subscription purchase, etc.
• Report on the telephone consultation Hot Line in 2023

Q and A

• New M.O. of Support Fraud

Precedents and Settlement Bulletin

• No. 2608-2619

Introduction of Important Precedents

Series 15, Activities and Research

• Activity Report of the Consumer Issues Committee of the Japan Federation of Judicial Scriveners’ Associations
• The National Federation of Shodanren’s efforts in 2023
• Japan Consumers Association Activity Report and Efforts
• National Consumer Affairs Center Information, The price is totally different from the price on the Internet! Beware of pest and vermin extermination troubles!

Voices of Government, Political Parties and Diet Members

• Toward the Formulation of the Fifth Basic Plan for Consumers, What Paradigm Shift Means
• Eradication of Malicious Business Practices in Times of Disaster
• Consumer Issues and the Formulation of the Government’s “Basic Plan,” Our Claims and Activities
• Let’s Eliminate the Pollution, Incense Pollution

Bibliography

• The Modernization of Consumer Law in the Digital Age

And more

• Database of judicial precedents
• Newspaper information