Reporting a scam in Japan

First hour, in order

Call your bank. Call your bank immediately. Japan's law on transfer fraud allows compensation from frozen accounts in some cases.
Stop paying. No fee, tax or "release payment" ever unlocks money that does not exist.
Screenshot everything before you delete an app, block a number or close an account.
Then report using the routes below. Reporting is slower than the bank call, and less urgent, but it is what produces enforcement.

Japan’s general consumer route is the 188 hotline, which connects you to a local consumer affairs centre. Japan also has its own long-established impersonation scam, ore-ore sagi, covered on its own page.

Dial 188 to reach your nearest consumer affairs centre.

Where to report

Consumer Hotline (消費者ホットライン)

Open the reporting page

Phone: 188

Also worth using

Police consultation line · #9110
Non-emergency police consultation.
Financial Services Agency
Warnings about unregistered financial operators.

What not to do

Do not pay anyone to recover your money. No legitimate service charges an up-front fee to get stolen funds back, and people who have just been scammed are the primary market for recovery scams.
Do not use contact details the scammer gave you, not the phone number, not the "support" chat, not a link in a message. Look the agency up yourself.
Do not delete the evidence. Apps, chats, wallet addresses and transaction IDs are what make a report actionable.
Do not send one more payment. This is where most of the largest losses happen.

Sources

Agency names, URLs and phone numbers were checked on 2026-09-06. Government contact details do change, if something here is wrong, please tell us.

消費者ホットライン (Consumer Hotline). Consumer Affairs Agency, Japan. Accessed 2026-09-06.