The government Tuesday inaugurated the Consumer Affairs Agency, a consolidated entity expected to better serve the public by bypassing the sectionalism of bureaucrats, but its new civil servant boss quickly drew fire from the Democratic Party of Japan.
Created by the departing Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito government, the agency is expected to function as a key hub that will deal quickly and in a unified manner with consumer-related issues, including product safety problems and fraud.
Up to now, problems pertaining to consumers were handled by various ministries and agencies, and by their internal sections, resulting in slow and often inconsistent measures that have drawn public criticism.