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The development of consumer policy in Japan may be characterized as a series of policy “waves”. The first wave of consumer policy was based on government regulation, which started in the 1960s. The second wave in the 1990s saw the establishment of private law rules that would allow consumers to protect their interests themselves through litigation. The third wave, which is emerging in the 21st century, is consumer policy focusing on corporate codes of conduct and compliance in general, and aiming to increase consumer welfare through the market mechanism. Ways of government regulation have changed from entry-to-the-market regulation to ex-post regulation based on clear rules and with heavy penalties for offenders. Private law rules functions not only as rules, which would be applied in the court, but also indicates what would be better practice for business. In fact, the latter plays a more important role than the former. Voluntary efforts by business to gain consumers’ confidence extends to “Corporate Social Responsibility”, which requires management to pay consideration to the interests of a variety of stakeholders. The money lending industry may not be immune from this trend and it is difficult to enjoy sustainable prosperity without confidence given by the society. However, money lending is particularly different from other type of services in that it is provided to those consumers pressured for money. This necessitates government regulation of the industry. The money lending industry must compete on the platform regulated by law for gaining repeating customers’ confidence. Whether the requirement of having a registered money lending manager introduced by the 2003 reform of the Money Lending Business Law will have any effect or not is a touchstone for this.
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