- Around 40% of consumers find personalised information convenient
- More than half feel uneasy or treated unfairly by online advertising and labelling
- About 20% of those who took out a subscription via social media had trouble cancelling it
- Recognition that AI-related consumer problems need tackling rose by 16.4 points
The report at a glance
- Original title
- 令和8年版 消費者白書 — デジタル化とAI技術の進展で変化する私たちの消費取引
- Publisher
- Consumer Affairs Agency (消費者庁)
- Published
- June 2026
- Language
- Japanese (full text and summary PDF)
- Access
- Free, no registration
Key numbers and findings
The special feature looks at how digitalisation and AI are changing everyday transactions, and finds two sides:
- Convenience: around 40% of consumers value personalised information, and generative AI is spreading among both businesses and individuals.
- Distrust: more than half of consumers feel anxiety or unfairness about online advertising and labelling. The paper highlights design techniques that steer people into choices they did not intend.
- Subscriptions: roughly one in five people who signed up for a subscription through social media ran into problems when cancelling.
- AI: the share who see AI-related consumer issues as important rose by 16.4 points.
What it means for companies entering Japan
Growth tactics that are common in the UK and US — pre-ticked boxes, hard-to-find cancellation, countdown timers, influencer posts that do not look like ads — carry real reputational risk in Japan, and increasingly legal risk. Japan has regulated undisclosed advertising (‘stealth marketing’) under its labelling law since October 2023, and the Consumer Affairs Agency is clearly watching subscription practices.
The practical takeaway: make cancellation as easy as sign-up, label every paid partnership clearly in Japanese, and write your terms and pricing in plain Japanese. In a market where trust is slow to win, that is also good marketing.
How to read the original
The Consumer Affairs Agency page lists the full white paper and a summary (概要) PDF. The summary is about 30 pages of charts and is the best place to start. This is a general summary, not legal advice.
Open the white paper page (Japanese) ↗
This is an independent summary by Japan Business Insider. Figures are taken from the original publication; the interpretation in “Our reading” is our own. Please check the original before quoting figures.