일본의 소비자 운동의 전개와 동향 - NPO, 소비자생활협동조합, 다중채무피해자의 모임을 사례로 -

Abstract

Recently, as public and private sectors are actively cooperating with each other in relation to consumer policies in Japan, consumer groups’ activities are getting more varied. This study considers specific cases of new consumer activities in Japan and gropes for the implications to develop consumer movement. Private consumer groups in Japan have recently become more varied in their organizational characteristics and more professional in their activities. The reason why Japan’s private consumer activities have been changed in many ways and actively performed, which had been pointed out to be highly dependent on its administration is on account of political supports like the enactment of NPO related laws or enforcement of ‘Consumer Class Action’. The cases of Japanese NPOs and heavy debtors groups that have been examined in this study are comparatively smaller than previous consumer groups in terms of scale but have even deeper professionalism, and the consumer cooperatives are said to be good examples of consumer activities which are consumer-participative and have a constant factor of organi- zational identity among members. For our reality, too, the demand and roles for NGOs such as consumer groups are considered to be more increased afterwards as public corporations; moreover, it can be said that political supports for such consumer groups will be greatly required in order to extend and continue consumer movement. To realize this, consumer groups and the administration need to be closely associated and divide their work responsibilities, and a support system to evaluate the groups’ activities and publicize information should be established as well as institutional foundation should be built for the groups’ financial and manpower supports.