Japan’s Consumer Commission has urged mobile carriers to lower spending caps for minors following numerous cases of children using carrier billing to make large unauthorised purchases in smartphone games.
Carrier billing allows users to pay for online services and internet shopping up to a set limit, with charges added to their mobile phone bills.
Monthly limits are mainly determined by the subscriber’s age, with major carriers setting amounts such as 20,000 yen (S$160) for those under 20, and 50,000 yen for 18 and 19-year-olds.
The Consumer Affairs Agency said consumer centres received roughly 5,000 to 6,000 consultations annually involving carrier billing from fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2025.
Parents reported children making costly online game purchases without their permission, while elderly users said they did not know what they paid for.
With the diversification of cashless payment methods, the commission began discussions on the issue in 2025.
A report compiled this September cited the availability of carrier billing by default for minors, as well as potentially lax carrier credit screening for adults, as factors behind the complaints.
The report proposed that mobile carriers set the spending cap of minors at “zero in principle or an extremely low amount”.
It also stressed the need for measures to prevent minors from using the service without parental consent or increasing limits without an application.
