A woman with dementia has sued Kintetsu department store, claiming it sold her 6.4 million yen worth of expensive items she did not need. The woman is demanding that the store refund the 5.2 million yen or so she has already paid for the goods, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Saturday.


According to a lawsuit filed with the Osaka District Court, the section of the store that sells items through home visits and at exhibitions sold kimono and other luxury items to the 80-year-old woman who lives alone in Osaka. The sales were made on eight occasions in a two-year period to June 2003.

The woman also had signed 30 contracts for about 20 million yen with a kimono shop in Osaka.

The woman has asked the court to order the kimono shop and five credit firms to refund 6.6 million yen she paid them.

The woman's lawyer said the business transactions were similar to the methods used by housing repair companies that prey on those with senile dementia.

The woman has been a client of the department store's home sales section since 1986.

According to the lawsuit, the woman began spending about 200,000 yen a year at the section. But after August 2001, her shopping pattern changed and she would spend 2.25 million yen at a time on kimono and jewelry, buying three kimono, three obi, jewelry and bedding.

Around June 2003, a relative became suspicious of the woman's behavior and took her to a hospital, where she was diagnosed as having moderate dementia.

The relative found many kimono at the woman's home, including a gaudy one that she had not seen before. As the woman did not remember where she had bought them, the relative contacted the department store and learned she had bought some of the items from the home sales section.

The department store refunded about 1.2 million yen to the woman for a kimono and obi it had sold to her. However, it did not refund the money for other items.

The woman also had bought 28 kimono, 22 obi and other items over a two-year period until June 2003 from the kimono shop by cash and on an installment plan. Her monthly payment for the installment plan exceeded 1 million yen.

Rie Kuroki, a lawyer belonging to the Osaka Bar Association, sued the department store and the shop in November on the woman's behalf at the relative's request.

In court, Kuroki claimed the department store was aware of the woman's income and usual shopping pattern as a result of their prolonged business relationship. She claimed employees of the home sales section took advantage of the woman's mental state and sold her expensive items.

Kuroki also claimed the behavior of the department store and the kimono shop offended public order and morals, and the contracts were thus null and void.

The department store rejected this argument, saying the woman was in full possession of her faculties when the contracts were signed and they were ordinary deals in which the woman chose and bought items she liked.