Politics · Japan · 19 hrs ago
Four Iida Group companies ordered to pay ¥441 million over No. 1 claims
Four Iida Group companies face about ¥441 million in penalties over advertising claims that they were No.
1 in customer satisfaction.
The companies are housing businesses in the Iida Group, based in Japan.
They advertised in 2022 and 2023 that Iida Group’s custom-built homes ranked No.
1 in three categories.
The survey did not check whether respondents had used a homebuilder and asked only about their impressions of websites.
Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency said the claims violated the law against misleading advertising.
The agency ordered the companies to pay penalties, and an Iida Group representative said the group would pay and had worked to prevent a repeat.
Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency ordered four Iida Group companies to pay a total of about ¥441 million in surcharges.
The agency said the companies’ “No. 1” advertising was based on surveys that were not conducted objectively.
The advertising appeared in flyers and on websites in 2022 and 2023.
The surveys asked about impressions of websites without checking whether respondents had used a home-building company.
The companies had received an order to take steps to prevent a recurrence in February 2024.
- Who
- The Consumer Affairs Agency ordered four Iida Group companies to pay surcharges.
- What
- The companies were ordered to pay about ¥441 million over “No. 1” advertising claims.
- When
- October 28, 2026. The advertising ran in 2022 and 2023.
- Where
- Japan; the claims appeared in flyers and on websites.
- Why
- The agency said the claims relied on surveys that were not conducted objectively and violated the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Four Iida Group companies and Iida Group advertised customer satisfaction “No. 1” claims in flyers and on websites.
The Consumer Affairs Agency ordered the five companies to take measures to prevent a recurrence.
The agency ordered four group companies to pay surcharges totaling about ¥441 million.
- Total surcharge
- About ¥441 million
- Housing Jōhōkan
- About ¥167 million
- Hajime Construction
- About ¥124 million
- Earnest One
- About ¥112 million
- Iida Sangyo
- About ¥36 million
3 sources
What people are saying
We have been working to prevent a recurrence. We will pay the surcharge going forward.