Personal bankruptcy filings in Japan rose to 83,100 in 2025, from 76,309 in 2024, according to court statistics cited in the materials for a new multiple-debt panel scheduled to meet on 28 October 2026. The panel is a discussion forum, not a rule-making body, and the meeting notice lists only a briefing on current conditions and policy trends followed by an exchange of views. (Earlier Tokyo Brief coverage)
A successor to the 2012 advisory group
The FSA and the Consumer Affairs Agency co-host the panel, which replaces an advisory group set up in 2012 that held 23 meetings. The Multiple Debt Countermeasures Headquarters, created in 2006 with the financial services minister as chief, last met in 2007 and was abolished under a cabinet decision of 20 January 2026 along with other ministerial councils judged to have met their goals. The agencies say conditions around multiple debt still call for a standing forum. A draft operating rule would make meetings public and require minutes and materials to be published.
What the indicators show
The bankruptcy count has risen every year since 2022, according to a bar association committee member's submission, which also shows individual rehabilitation filings of 11,415 in 2025, against 10,524 in 2024 and 9,440 in 2023. He attributed the rise to price increases that outpaced incomes, and labelled that a personal view.
Other gauges are mixed. Consultations at finance bureaus rose to 7,104 in 2025 from 6,552 in 2024. Local-government consultations fell to 27,972 from 29,429, but the 2025 count covers 942 responding municipalities against 1,025 the year before, so the two totals are not like for like. Credit-bureau data cited by the health ministry put the number of people with three or more unsecured, unguaranteed loans at about 1.53mn at the end of February 2026.
The Japan Financial Services Association, the moneylenders' trade body, logged 10,334 consultations in the year ended March 2026, down 1,020 on the prior year. Its count of consultations about illegal lenders and unlawful operators went the other way: 116 in the first half of the current fiscal year against 93 a year earlier. The Japanese Bankers Association put bank card-loan balances at ¥3.70tn at the end of March 2026 across 107 member banks. That figure and moneylender balances come from different reporting populations.
Proposals on the table
Members used their submissions to push specific changes. A bar association committee member called for a survey of how much moneylenders and debt collectors recover on time-barred claims, and for supervisory guidelines on such collection. A judicial scriveners' federation representative asked the Justice Ministry to make complaint channels for debt collection companies clearer and to keep investigating collection on expired claims. These are member requests. The meeting materials record no new lending restriction.