The Thirty-fourth Conference on Consumer Protection Tuesday, December 11, 2001 The 34th Conference on Consumer Protection was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. At the Conference, future policy on consumer affairs was discussed and concrete measures were decided for the coming year. The measures include consumer safety measures, primarily countermeasures to deal with the current issue of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). Measures to protect the consumer in response to the increasing use of information technology (IT) and the spread of electronic commerce, as well as the enhancement of education and the provision of information for the consumer on such issues as the prevention of global warming, will also become areas of focus for the implementation of future measures. Prime Minister Koizumi stated, "I call on all of you to work to improve cooperation and actively push forward on consumer affairs."