Class actions

Japan — two-stage collective consumer redress

NationalJPUnverified — check before relying on it

Japan

Rule id: collective.jp
Version: 1.0.0
In force from: October 1, 2016
Last read against its sources: August 5, 2026
Countries bound: Japan

Japan

In plain language

What this regime says.

Japan's two-stage regime has a certified consumer organisation establish the trader's common obligation first, after which individual consumers opt in to have their entitlements determined.

Who is covered

Consumers who opt in to the second stage after the common obligation is declared.

What you get

An individually determined sum in the simplified second-stage procedure. No statutory figure.

Where claims go wrong

Waiting to be contacted. Stage two is opt-in and has a deadline.
Expecting a broad class action. Only a small number of certified organisations can bring one.

The official claim route

Authority

Every citation,
with its pinpoint.

A claim that cites “EU law” gets filed. A claim that cites Article 7(1)(c) gets answered. These are the exact coordinates this entry rests on.

Act on Special Provisions of Civil Procedure for Collective Recovery of Property Damage Incurred by Consumers (Act No. 96 of 2013)Japan — collective consumer redress statute, in force 1 October 2016, amended in 2022Stage one: a Specified Qualified Consumer Organisation certified by the Prime Minister sues for a declaration of the trader's common obligation. Stage two: individual consumers opt in to a simplified determination procedure in which their individual entitlements are fixed

Sources

Where a figure is indexed, converted or published by a regulator rather than fixed in the instrument, the provenance is recorded separately. Anything marked as a modelled estimate is exactly that — a model, not a statutory number.

Consumer Affairs Agency — collective consumer redressConsumer Affairs Agency, Government of Japanretrieved 2026-08-05

What it imposes

Clocks, defences and the ladder.

A rule module builds these while it evaluates, because a limitation period depends on which forum is open to you. What follows is the structure this regime produces — deliberately with no dates and no figures, because those belong to your facts rather than to the law.

What it entitles you to, beyond money

A route into a collective action, if one existsNothing happens for an individual consumer in stage one. Participation is by opting in to the second stage, within the period fixed after the common-obligation declaration, through the organisation running the case. The design is deliberate: a consumer decides whether to join once the trader's liability has already been established.Stage one: a Specified Qualified Consumer Organisation certified by the Prime Minister sues for a declaration of the trader's common obligation. Stage two: individual consumers opt in to a simplified determination procedure in which their individual entitlements are fixed
Ask a body with standing to take it upOnly a Specified Qualified Consumer Organisation certified by the Prime Minister. There are very few of them, which is the principal practical limitation on the regime. A consumer organisation will not act on one complaint, but it will act on a pattern, and its case starts with people reporting the same thing. Your individual claim under whatever substantive law applies is unaffected and usually faster.Stage one: a Specified Qualified Consumer Organisation certified by the Prime Minister sues for a declaration of the trader's common obligation. Stage two: individual consumers opt in to a simplified determination procedure in which their individual entitlements are fixed
Your own individual claim is still thereCollective redress is an alternative route, not a replacement. Unless you are bound by a judgment or a settlement in a collective action, your individual claim under the ordinary law survives, and for a small sum it is usually the faster route. Check the other regimes in this result.

What the other side will say

Each of these is a refusal this regime lets a counterparty attempt, paired with the answer to it. Reading them before you write is worth more than any amount of polish on the letter itself.

"We can file your class-action claim for you — for a percentage"

high likelihood

A claims-filing service, a "settlement recovery" app or a law firm that is not class counsel contacts you offering to handle the claim, taking 15-40% of whatever arrives. Some buy the claim outright for a fraction of its value. Others harvest the personal data on the form.

What answers it

Filing is free, it is done on the administrator's own website, and it takes minutes. Class counsel are already paid out of the settlement — you do not retain anyone and you do not owe anyone a percentage. Several administrators now reject bulk third-party filings outright, and some settlement agreements void claims submitted by an aggregator, so using one can cost you the whole claim rather than a slice of it. The only address you should be entering your details into is the official settlement website named in the notice, which is also the only place that can tell you the real deadline.

"Up to $X" is read as an entitlement

high likelihood

The notice, the press coverage and the aggregators all quote the maximum per-claimant figure. It is read as an entitlement.

What answers it

"Up to" is a cap, not a promise. Almost every consumer settlement is a fixed fund divided among valid claims, so the per-claimant payment falls as the claims rate rises and is calculated only after the claims period closes, after the administrator validates claims, and after fees and costs come out. A settlement quoted at "up to $100" routinely pays single digits. That is not a reason to skip filing — the form is free and takes minutes — but it is a reason not to plan around the headline number.

Where to take it next

Report it to Consumer Affairs Agency / National Consumer Affairs Center of JapanCollective actions start as patterns in a regulator's or consumer body's complaint data. A single report is free, takes minutes, and is the only mechanism by which a case like yours becomes a case at all. It does not give you money and should not be mistaken for a claim.Regulatortypically 60 daysofficial page
Run your own individual claim in parallelDo not wait for a collective action. They take years, most never certify, and the individual routes in this result run on their own limitation periods that keep expiring while you wait. If a collective action later covers the same loss you simply give credit for anything already recovered.Claim directtypically 30 days

The same claim type elsewhere

Class or group settlement — are you inside the class definition?GLOBALSupranational — party states varyFed. R. Civ. P. 23 Belgium — action en réparation collective (Code de droit économique, Book XVII)BENational — BelgiumCode de droit économique / Wetboek van economisch recht, Livre XVII, Titre 2 (arts. XVII.35 et seq.)European Union — Representative Actions Directive (EU) 2020/1828EUSupranational — 27 countriesDirective (EU) 2020/1828 on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers France — action de groupeFRNational — FranceAction de groupe — Code de la consommation, arts. L623-1 et seq., as reformed in 2025 Germany — Abhilfeklage and Musterfeststellungsklage (VDuG)DENational — GermanyVerbraucherrechtedurchsetzungsgesetz (VDuG)Italy — azione di classe (arts. 840-bis et seq. c.p.c.)ITNational — ItalyCodice di procedura civile, arts. 840-bis to 840-sexiesdecies (Legge 12 aprile 2019, n. 31)Netherlands — WAMCA collective damages actionsNLNational — NetherlandsWet afwikkeling massaschade in collectieve actie (WAMCA)Poland — group proceedings (postępowanie grupowe)PLNational — PolandUstawa z dnia 17 grudnia 2009 r. o dochodzeniu roszczeń w postępowaniu grupowym

Other rights in the same countries

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