Japanese Gov’t Agency Reports 170% Increase in Consumer Inquiries About Crypto in 2018

Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency has reported that 2018 saw a 170% uptick in the number of consumer queries about cryptocurrencies as compared with the previous year. The news was reported by Cointelegraph Japan on June 18.

The Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) is an administrative agency of Japan’s Cabinet Office — the office responsible for the day-to-day affairs of the government’s executive branch (the Diet). The CAA submits its report on the consumer sector and matters of consumer protection to the Diet each year: last year’s is accessible in English, while this year’s remains to be translated.

The CAA’s research indicates that in 2018, consumer queries about crypto exchanges hit 3,657 cases — roughly a 1.7 increase over the previous year. While the growth rate of such inquiries has slowed — as compared with 3.5x in 2017 — Cointelegraph Japan notes that growth has been consistent each year since 2014.

The CAA revealed that the main content of such inquiries included questions in regard to crypto exchanges’ credibility, requests for refunds, security-related matters, difficulties with logins or payments, and difficulties with crypto-related vendors that fail to respond to clients.

The agency has further revealed that a number of inquiries regarded investment difficulties.

As reported, a report published by Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) in fall 2018 indicated that the number of enquiries about cryptocurrencies from Japanese investors declined in the third quarter of 2018.

This February, the FSA published data for Q4 2018, indicating yet further declines.