Abstract
This study investigated and compared the tasks peformed by Consumer Agencies in Korea and Japan. It also investigated the variables influencing evaluation scores on consumer tasks. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, Japanese counselors were predominantly older, married females in contrast to the predominance of relatively young, single, male, Korean consumer counselors. In Korea, most consumer tasks were performed by Consumer Agencies in Seoul while internet counseling was popular. In addition, 13 counselors belong to Korean Consumer Agencies while 80 worked in the Korea Consumer Protection Board. In Japan, consumer tasks were peformed by Consumer Centers located broadly across the nation but no internet counseling was provided, while the average number of consumer counselors per Consumer Center was 8. The average number of consumer counseling sessions per day was greater in Korea than in Japan while the average monthly income was higher in Japan than in Korea. Second, evaluation of the tasks performed by Consumer Agencies revealed that the Korean Consumer Agencies scored higher performance than their Japanese counterparts. Third, the degree of job satisfaction significantly influenced evaluation scores in both consumer counseling tasks and provision of consumer information in Korea. In Korea, among the tasks concerning consumer education, job-training education was a significant variable while the number of Korean counselors in Consumer Agencies positively influenced scores on activities concerning consumer movement and alliance with other agencies. However, the degree of job satisfaction among counselors positively and significantly influenced evaluation scores in tasks concerning consumer counseling, provision of consumers'information, and consumer education. On the other hand, the number of counselors in Japanese Consumer Centers influenced the evaluation scores on tasks concerning consumer policy, consumer survey, and consumer campaign.