Anti Counterfeiting Campaign to be Held in Japan

45.5% of people in their early 20s, who use online shopping have unwittingly purchased counterfeit products. As an effort to raise public awareness of how to avoid buying counterfeit products, the JPO will start the FY2019 Anti-Counterfeiting Campaign upholding the slogan “Always do research and use your Good Judgment!!” on December 2 (Mon.), 2019. In this campaign, the JPO plans to raise awareness of this issue by using an innovative advertising campaign in which people can “peel off” sections of campaign posters and keep them as a reminder.

Recently, a growing number of people have been unwittingly trading counterfeit products on the internet. This highlights the fact that anyone may not only become purchasers of counterfeit products, but also sellers thereof. In particular, young people in their early 20s tend to become victims of counterfeit products as they are highly-frequent users of flea market applications or social networking services (SNSs).

To address this situation, the JPO will start this campaign, targeting young people in particular, to explain specific actions to avoid buying and selling counterfeit products.

According to the results of a questionnaire survey targeting people in their early 20s, 45.5% or about a half of users of online shopping malls or flea market applications answered that they have purchased counterfeit products without awareness that such products are counterfeit. To raise public awareness of approaches to avoiding buying such products, the JPO decided to adopt the slogan “Always do research and use your Good Judgment!!.”