Seven Japanese Agencies Order Google, X and TikTok to Verify Ad Buyers by October
- Seven Japanese government agencies have requested stronger countermeasures from five major platforms.
- Targeted platforms include Google, LINE, Yahoo! Japan, and X.
- The focus is on preventing fraudulent advertisements using celebrity impersonation.
- This reflects the growing trend of fraud spreading rapidly through social media.
- Platforms are being asked to improve account verification and ad review systems.
Seven Japanese ministries and agencies — the National Police Agency, Digital Agency, Financial Services Agency, Consumer Affairs Agency, and the ministries of internal affairs, justice and industry — jointly told five platforms to clean up celebrity impersonation scam ads: Google, Meta, X, TikTok and LINE Yahoo. The demands are advertiser identity verification, greater ad transparency, and reliable handling of takedown requests. Platforms must report their plans by mid-October and their results by next March.
The joint filing matters more than its content. Scam advertising in Japan had been split across five regulators, letting platforms answer each window separately. Naming five companies with one voice concedes that fragmented persuasion failed. Japan has run this sequence before with illegal uploads and online defamation: request self-regulation, document the failure, then legislate. The October and March deadlines are evidence-gathering for a bill.
Watch three things. First, whether the October filings specify how advertisers will be verified rather than promising stronger review. Second, the NPA's monthly scam-loss statistics through next spring. Third, FSA enforcement against the unregistered operators these ads funnel victims toward. Investors dealing with Japan should check the FSA registry before wiring anything — unregistered firms are listed publicly, and recovery rates after payment are close to zero.
