The Consumer Affairs Agency must play the vital role of being the only government organ tasked with serving consumers, but in the process it might help bureaucrats improve their public image, the director general of the new body said.
The agency debuted last week, consolidating various government sections and departments to deal with consumer-related issues, including fraud, product safety and food mislabeling.
"Bureaucrats up to now have not looked directly at the people" and their lives on an individual basis, Shunichi Uchida, former vice minister of the Cabinet Office, said in a group interview with media organizations.