GASA Report Finds 22% Of Japanese Encountered Scams In Past Year
Reported encounters fell but concern rose and more than half of those contacted still engaged with the message, so the survey points to exposure shifting to email and apps with direct messages rather than to fewer attempts.
Reporting from 1 source: ASCII.jp.
A GASA survey of 1,200 people aged 18 and over in Japan, run from March 16 to April 13, 2026, found 22% encountered suspicious solicitations or contacts in the past 12 months, down from 38% a year earlier. Concern about being scammed rose to 45% from 42%. Of those who encountered a scam, 53% responded in some way, such as reading a message.
The contact routes cited shifted toward everyday channels. Email was named by 55% of those who encountered a scam, up from 36% a year earlier, while SMS and phone each came in at 43%, against 27% and 31%. Gmail was the most common service named at 28%, followed by X at 22%, Instagram at 21% and LINE at 19%, and 59% of encounters happened on services with direct message functions.
Reporting behavior followed a similar pattern. 75% of those who encountered a scam told someone, most often friends and family at 61%, ahead of mobile carriers at 28%, platforms at 27%, internet service providers at 20% and police at 18%.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.