My Daughter Is behind on Repaying Me for Covering Her Cosmetic Surgery

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:15 JST, January 11, 2026

Dear Troubleshooter:

I’m a part-time worker in my 60s. My daughter, who is in her early 20s, dropped out of university and is now working part-time. She’s interested in beauty care.

Several years ago, she underwent cosmetic surgery, which cost ¥2 million. She told me about it only after the procedure. What’s worse, she took out loans to cover the surgery and asked me to repay them on her behalf.

My daughter promised to repay me the money I had paid to cover her loans. It’s frustrating that she doesn’t have a steady job and is just continuing to work part-time, and she hasn’t kept up with her repayments.

I regret that I just agreed to cover her loan repayments without seeking advice from someone else. I’m also wondering why her surgery cost so much.

My daughter is also repaying her student loans. Even so, she often buys things online and goes on trips. If she can afford to do such things, I want her to pay me back as soon as possible.

I told her to draw up a repayment plan, but she’s never done so. How should I deal with her?

E, Hyogo Prefecture

Dear Ms. E:

It seems that your daughter took out ¥2 million in loans without talking to you and used the money to have cosmetic surgery. You ended up paying back all the loans on her behalf.

Has your daughter been able to get away with not repaying even a portion of her loans? I don’t exactly know how all those things came about, but I think you have been too lenient in dealing with the issue.

For your daughter, if she has to repay her loans to her own mother, not the financial institution that loaned her the money, it means that she can pay them back only when she is able to, and she won’t be pressed to make repayments. It won’t take much time before she starts thinking that it would be OK for her to prioritize shopping or traveling.

This is an outcome you could have easily predicted. Now is the time for you to show your resolve.

First, figure out exactly how much your daughter still owes you at this point. To do so, you need to check when and how much money she has repaid so far. Then, you can create a repayment plan on your own by specifying how much she has to pay you back each month.

Show your plan to your daughter and discuss it with her. If the two of you can agree on a specific plan, put that on a new piece of paper, which should be signed by both of you.

It will probably take longer for your daughter to finish making the repayments if she only thinks about them vaguely. By making a repayment plan that is specified in writing, I hope that your daughter will take to heart what it means to owe ¥2 million.

Yoko Sanuki, lawyer