Basic Act on Consumer Policies（Act No. 78 of 1968）.

The purpose of this Act is to promote comprehensive initiatives relating to the protection and promotion of consumers' interests and to thereby ensure stabilization and improvement in the people's lives as consumers, by prescribing respect for consumers' rights, support for their self-reliance, and other fundamental principles, as well as by clarifying the responsibilities of the State, local governments, and businesses, and prescribing the particulars upon which these initiatives are based, in consideration of the discrepancy in the quality and quantity of information and in bargaining power between businesses and consumers.
Fundamental principles are set up in Article 1, including: 1. The relevant actors must promote comprehensive initiatives to protect and advance consumers' interests; 2. The relevant actors must make arrangements to protect the environment in promoting consumer policies; etc. The State shall undertake the necessary initiatives to ensure the safety of the people in their lives as consumers, such as preparing and ensuring the necessary standards for goods and services, facilitating businesses' recall of goods that could be detrimental to safety, and collecting and providing information on goods and services that could be detrimental to safety. The State is to undertake the necessary initiatives to contribute to improvements in the quality of goods and rationalization in the people's lives as consumers, such as preparing the proper standards for goods and services and disseminating them. The National Consumer Affairs Center serves as a core institution on consumer affairs in cooperation with the Japanese government, local consumer affairs centers and other relevant organizations to prevent and minimize consumer detriment. The Consumer Policy Council is established under the Cabinet Office. Its functions include: creating the draft of the basic plan for consumer policies; deliberating on plans for the foundational particulars involved in promoting consumer policies; promoting the implementation of consumer policies and verifying, assessing, and monitoring their implementation status. The Consumer Commission shall undertake studies of and deliberations on the foundational particulars involved in promoting consumer policies.