The Liberal Democratic Party adopted on Wednesday a draft proposal advocating the imposition of tougher punitive measures on unregistered moneylenders, LDP officials said.
The proposal recommends the establishment of a consumer hotline that would be used to guard the public against loan sharks and penalize lenders who charge illegally high interest rates, the officials said.
Based on this proposal, the LDP will submit a bill to the Diet this session aimed at amending related laws and cracking down on illegal lenders, they said.
The proposed hotline is designed to combat illegal and violent debt-collection practices, and to coordinate efforts by the government, industries and consumer groups to support victims of loan sharks, the officials said.
In an effort to block the involvement of criminal organizations in money-lending activities, the proposal calls on lenders to have their representatives carry authentic identification cards when they visit clients to collect money.