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Japan — Act on Specified Commercial Transactions and the final-confirmation-screen rules

NationalJPDerived or secondary source

Japan

Rule id
subscription.jp-asct
Version
1.0.0
In force from
June 1, 2022
Last read against its sources
August 5, 2026
Countries bound
Japan

In plain language

What this regime says.

Japan's 2021 amendment to the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions requires a compliant final confirmation screen before an online purchase, including for continuous contracts, and lets a consumer rescind an application induced by a non-compliant one. There is no general cooling-off right for ordinary online purchases.

Who is covered

Consumers contracting with traders subject to the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions in Japan.

What you get

Rescission where the confirmation screen was non-compliant, and cooling-off where the transaction falls into one of the specified categories.

Where claims go wrong

  • Assuming an eight-day cooling-off applies to a web signup. It does not.
  • Not asking for the final confirmation screen as it stood on the signup date.
  • Not using the 188 consumer hotline, which is free and effective.

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.
  1. 特定商取引に関する法律 (Act on Specified Commercial Transactions), Act No. 57 of 1976Act on Specified Commercial Transactions of Japan, as amended by Act No. 72 of 2021mail-order transactions: the final confirmation screen, prohibited misleading displays, and the consumer's right to rescind an application induced by them
  2. 消費者契約法 (Consumer Contract Act), Act No. 61 of 2000Consumer Contract Act of Japanvoidable consent, and the invalidity of clauses that unreasonably prejudice the consumer

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.

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.

The clocks it starts

  • General civil limitation period (varies — check locally)Limitation periods for consumer contract claims in the countries in this file range from about one year to ten and are not something we state per country. Two years is shown as a prompt to check, not as the law. A continuing course of charges usually restarts the clock, so a subscription still billing is rarely out of time.Limitation period

What it entitles you to, beyond money

  • Cancellation, effective from the date of your noticeSend a dated written cancellation naming the account, the subscription and the date you want it to end, and keep the proof. Say in terms that any further charge is unauthorised — that sentence is what turns the next debit into a payment dispute you can win without arguing about the subscription at all.mail-order transactions: the final confirmation screen, prohibited misleading displays, and the consumer's right to rescind an application induced by them
  • Revocation of the payment authority with your bankDo not rely on the merchant to stop billing. Tell the card issuer or bank to cancel the recurring authority and to block further authorisations from that merchant descriptor. This works even where the merchant is unresponsive and even where it is abroad.

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.

"You agreed to the terms, which set out the renewal"

high likelihood

The trader points at a terms page or a single acceptance checkbox at signup.

What answers it

Acceptance of general terms is not the same as informed consent to an automatic renewal, and in most of these jurisdictions the renewal term has to be presented clearly and close to the point of consent rather than behind a link. Ask the trader to produce the actual screen you were shown, with the date. If it produces today's checkout flow rather than the one in force when you signed up, say so.

特定商取引に関する法律 (Act on Specified Commercial Transactions), Act No. 57 of 1976 — mail-order transactions: the final confirmation screen, prohibited misleading displays, and the consumer's right to rescind an application induced by them

"Cancellation has to be done by telephone"

high likelihood

The trader accepts online signups and insists on a phone call, a physical letter or an in-person visit to cancel.

What answers it

This jurisdiction regulates the exit as well as the entry. A trader that lets you subscribe in one click and requires a phone call to leave is not complying, and the mismatch between the two journeys is the whole of the complaint. Describe both journeys, in order, in your letter and in the regulator complaint.

特定商取引に関する法律 (Act on Specified Commercial Transactions), Act No. 57 of 1976 — mail-order transactions: the final confirmation screen, prohibited misleading displays, and the consumer's right to rescind an application induced by them

"You have to give a notice period, so the next charge stands"

medium likelihood

The trader accepts the cancellation but insists on a further billing cycle under a notice clause buried in the terms.

What answers it

Ask for the clause, by number, and ask when and how it was brought to your attention. A notice period that was not clearly disclosed before you contracted is vulnerable as an unfair term in most of these jurisdictions, and a notice period longer than the billing cycle itself is vulnerable almost everywhere. Pay nothing pending the answer and revoke the payment authority.

"We are established abroad, so your consumer law does not apply"

medium likelihood

The trader is incorporated elsewhere and says the contract is governed by the law of its own seat.

What answers it

A choice-of-law clause in a consumer contract does not usually deprive a consumer of the protection of the mandatory rules of the country they live in, and a trader that directs its activities at consumers in a country generally answers to that country's consumer regulator. Say where you live, say that you contracted from there, and copy the regulator named in this result. Meanwhile the payment route works regardless of governing law.

Where to take it next

  1. Written cancellation and refund demand to the traderOne document: cancel, demand refund of anything taken after your first cancellation attempt, cite the instrument named in this result, and give a short deadline. Ask for written confirmation of the cancellation date — that document is what every later step needs.Claim directtypically 14 days
  2. Card dispute for the post-cancellation chargesRun this in parallel rather than afterwards. Scheme dispute windows are commonly 120 days from the charge, which is shorter than any consumer-protection route, and a reversal obtained here does not prejudice the rest of the claim.Claim directtypically 45 days
  3. The Consumer Affairs Agency and the local consumer affairs centres (hotline 188)Japan's local consumer affairs centres, reachable everywhere on the 188 hotline, provide free advice and will contact the trader on the consumer's behalf. They are effective and materially under-used by foreign residents. It will take your individual complaint, so file it as one: the merchant, the dates, the amounts, and what you want.Regulatortypically 45 daysofficial page

Documents

What this regime can produce.

Every one of these is a document you send yourself, in your own name. Duesday never writes to anybody on your behalf and is never anyone’s agent.

The same claim type elsewhere

EU Consumer Rights Directive — withdrawal, order-button and inertia-selling rulesEUSupranational30 countriesDirective 2011/83/EU (Consumer Rights Directive)Confidence: highNorway — Angrerettloven right of withdrawalNONationalNorwayLov om opplysningsplikt og angrerett (angrerettloven), LOV-2014-06-20-27Confidence: highRussia — Consumer Rights Protection Law arts. 26.1 and 32RUNationalRussiaЗакон РФ от 07.02.1992 № 2300-1 «О защите прав потребителей», ст. 32Confidence: mediumSwitzerland — Code of Obligations right of revocation (and the online gap)CHNationalSwitzerlandSwiss Code of Obligations, arts. 40a–40fConfidence: mediumTürkiye — Law 6502 distance contracts and the Subscription Contracts RegulationTRNationalTürkiyeTüketicinin Korunması Hakkında Kanun No. 6502, arts. 48 and 52Confidence: mediumUK Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 (and the not-yet-commenced DMCCA subscription regime)GBNationalUnited KingdomConsumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/3134)Confidence: highCalifornia Automatic Renewal Law (Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17600-17606, as amended by AB 2863)US-CASub-nationalUnited StatesCalifornia Business and Professions Code §§ 17600-17606Confidence: highCanada — provincial consumer protection acts and the federal Competition ActCANationalCanadaLoi sur la protection du consommateur, RLRQ c. P-40.1 (Quebec)Confidence: medium

Other rights in the same countries

Japan — dormant deposits (Act No. 101 of 2016, in force 1 January 2018)JPNationalJapanAct on Utilization of Funds Related to Dormant Deposits to Promote Public Interest Activities by the Private Sector (Act No. 101 of 2016)Confidence: mediumJapan — filed conditions of carriage, the Consumer Contract Act and the Montreal ConventionJPNationalJapan航空法 第106条 (Civil Aeronautics Act, Art. 106 — filed conditions of carriage)Confidence: mediumJapan — Installment Sales Act connection of defences and Specified Commercial Transactions ActJPNationalJapan割賦販売法 第30条の4 (Installment Sales Act, art. 30-4)Confidence: mediumJapan — Japan PostJPNationalJapanPostal Act (Act No. 165 of 1947) and Japan Post's service termsConfidence: lowJapan — JR delay certificates (遅延証明書) and limited express-charge refundsJPNationalJapanCarriers’ published conditions of carriage (運送約款)Confidence: lowJapan — tax-inclusive price display and misleading representationsJPNationalJapanAct against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations (Act No. 134 of 1962), art. 5Confidence: mediumJapan — the national fee schedule and the high-cost medical expense benefitJPNationalJapanHealth Insurance Act (健康保険法) and the National Health Insurance Act (国民健康保険法)Confidence: lowJapan — two-stage collective consumer redressJPNationalJapanAct on Special Provisions of Civil Procedure for Collective Recovery of Property Damage Incurred by Consumers (Act No. 96 of 2013)Confidence: low

Does this one reach your facts?

The engine runs every regime that could apply at once and reconciles them, rather than making you guess which page to read.

Not a law firm. Not legal advice. You send it yourself. This page describes a law; it is not advice about your situation and no outcome is promised.