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...

"This book provides a comparative overview of the rules in EU, US and Japan law on competition. After an overview of the history and the underlying economic issues, it discusses cartels and other agreements restraining competition (ancillary agreements, R&D/specialization agreements,...

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...

It has been long since Japan was called ‘the world’s factory’. Since the 1990’s, the notion that Japan cannot maintain its economic strength and has to change to steer its economy to be an innovation-driven one has been widespread. Accordingly, measures to strengthen intellectual...