The bill to amend the Japanese Antimonopoly Act (AMA) finally passed the Diet on 19 March 2019. The amendments will increase the amount of the administrative fine, called a surcharge. This low surcharge is routinely criticised. Despite several changes made to the current system, the surcharge is...

Abuse of superior bargaining position has long been a controversial area of Japanese competition law. Even though it is by no means unique to Japan — Korea, Taiwan, France, and Germany among others also have similar regulation — Japan's abuse regulation has tended to attract more attention...

The Pacific Ocean liner shipping market appears to be cartelized, primarily because of antitrust exemptions for shipping companies’ agreements. The current industry consolidation trend driven by economies of scale is likely to nurture the collusion inducing environment further; thus,...

The recent phenomena that the gig workers, franchisees and sellers using online shopping platform establish ‘unions’ to bargain collectively with their powerful counterparties give rise to questions as to how these organisations should be dealt under the competition laws. Although it is...

The AMA does not apply to workers’ collective actions protected by labour law. Due to the uncertainty in the definition of workers and coverage of labour law, the extent to which self-employed workers’ collective actions are exempt from the AMA has become unclear. In such a context, it is...

Bid rigging among companies is sometimes aided by government officials when the officials provide information concerning the yearly schedule for public tendering or when they reveal the maximum and minimum contract prices set in advance by the procuring office. Officials sometimes suggest that...

While Japan is aging rapidly and the local communities in rural areas are struggling to maintain their essential societal function, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has revised the merger guidelines to allow for mergers that create a monopoly. Under the new approach, which the author calls...