Kumanomi ran Premium Body Balance, an esthetic salon offering a 'Beautiful Pelvis Correction + choice of 5 latest slimming diets' program. On its website it promised results in absolute terms: '-7.3kg experience!', '-23.3kg experience in one year!' beside before-and-after photos, 'weight -23.3kg, body fat -17.3%, body age -28', and that the program 'will definitely lead you to results' with 'tremendous effects on all fat and cellulite'. The pages also claimed the salon was 'produced by Saitama No.1 osteopathic clinic'. The displays ran from June 2022 to January 2023.
Saitama Prefecture issued a measure order on 14 March 2023; the claims implied slimming effects that were not substantiated, and the small-print caveat 'results may vary by individual' did not cancel the promise. The Consumer Affairs Agency followed with a surcharge: on 17 February 2026 it ordered Kumanomi to pay 3,610,000 yen — 3% of the 120,635,355 yen of service sales recorded between 2 June 2022 and 8 April 2023.
The surcharge is payable by 18 September 2026. The case is a textbook example of how Japan's regime reaches beauty services: before-and-after photos and 'guaranteed results' language are treated as claims about what the service will do, and the advertiser must hold the proof before the photos go up.
Japan's regime treated the photos and absolute promises as claims, and the missing substantiation drew a ¥3.61M surcharge on ¥120M of sales.
'-23.3kg in one year' with before-and-after photos read as a promise of results — and the salon held no substantiation.
'Definitely lead you to results' and 'tremendous effects on all fat' left no room for the small-print caveat.
The 'Saitama No.1 osteopathic clinic' banner had no objective basis either.
Before-and-after photos are claims: Premium Body Balance promised '-23.3kg' and guaranteed results without proof, and Japan charged ¥3.61M on ¥120M of salon sales.
The surcharge order of 17 February 2026 required Kumanomi to pay 3,610,000 yen by 18 September 2026, on 120,635,355 yen of sales. It followed Saitama Prefecture's measure order of 14 March 2023 against the same displays.
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