Exposing Western Union’s Predatory Practices in Japan: Seeking Advice on How to Bring Change

Western Union in Japan preys on foreigners, and I'd like to know who to notify about this practice to ensure that foreigners receive adequate protections.

Here are the specific issues that concern me:

1. Bait and Switch Exchange Rates: Western Union (the wire transfer brand) and Travelex (the money exchange brand) are both operated by Western Union, the multinational. In Tokyo, you will find shops that present as both brands. The agents operating these shops use the co-branding to execute a bait and switch. They prominently advertise the Travelex exchange rates in their shops, and will place a document displaying favorable exchange in front of customers. But when a customer needs to make a wire transfer via Western Union, they switch, charging a heavily marked up exchange rate that is vastly more expensive than the advertised Travelex rate.
2. Confusing Contracts: Western Union obscures the new mark up by changing how the exchange rate is displayed. For example, they may display the USD/JPY rate in the agreement and JPY/USD rates elsewhere, making it difficult to spot the differences.
3. Language Barriers: Any references to the discrepancy between the advertised exchange rates and the hidden wire transfer rates are only written in Japanese. Since foreigners represent the majority of their customers, they are even less likely to catch this.

As a result, this company's business model in Japan appears to prey on foreigners by manipulating numbers and withholding information. On a $5000 USD transfer, Western Union will likely charge you about $300 via a hidden exchange rate markup. This is about 10X what you might pay at a bank to execute a transfer.

If you attempt to call Western Union's customer service about these shady practices, they will often gaslight you, suggesting that the discrepancies are due to exchange rate fluctuations rather than acknowledging the backdoor significant markup.

My thought is that if Western Union wants to charge a large markup, that's fine, but they need to properly warn consumers about their high markup exchange rates and how they differ materially from the advertised Travelex rates, instead of hiding this information.

So my question is, how can we foreigners in Japan drive the necessary changes? What resources are available to bring transparency to their practices?