Japanese competition law

Japanese competition law consists of the Antimonopoly Act (独占禁止法, Dokusen Kinshihō; "AMA"), officially the Act on Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade (私的独占の禁止及び公正取引の確保に関する法律, Shiteki-dokusen no Kinshi oyobi Kōseitorihiki no Kakuho ni Kansuru Hōritsu; Act No. 54 of April 14, 1947),[1] and several other statutory laws such as the Subcontract Act.

The AMA was introduced during the postwar United States-led-and-controlled Allied occupation. President Harry S. Truman, on 6 September 1945, issued a presidential directive instructing the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) to dissolve Zaibatsu structures.[2] Prior to World War II, Japan had no antitrust laws.[3] There were seventeen Zaibatsu organisations, the four largest of which had controlled approximately a fourth of all of the paid-up capital in the Japanese economy just prior to the World War.

Cartels still exist

The JFTC regards cartels as core offenses against free and fair competition and regularly imposes sanctions.[4] The JFTC also has the authority to refer cartel and bid-rigging cases for criminal prosecution, and it has done so in particularly serious cases. For instance, in 2018, criminal proceedings were brought against four construction companies accused of bid-rigging for the construction of new stations on the maglev railway, which will connect Tokyo and Nagoya.[5]

Although there was a time when Japan was referred to as the "cartel archipelago",[6] those days are long gone. The exemptions for cartels in the AMA have all been abolished and only narrow exemptions survive in special legislation, such as the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Organization Act, which allows certain cooperative price-setting by SME cooperatives or federations to counterbalance bargaining disparities, subject to approval.

See also

References

  1. ^ Fair Trade Commission. "Legislation and Guidelines". Archived from the original on March 22, 2011. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  2. ^ Hadley, Eleanor M. (2015). Antitrust in Japan. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. pp. 61–76. ISBN 978-1-4008-7205-3. Retrieved 19 July 2025.
  3. ^ Vande Walle, Simon (1 April 2013). "Competition and Competition Law in Japan: Between Scepticism and Embrace". Cambridge University Press.
  4. ^ Japan Fair Trade Commission. "Annual Report on Competition Policy Developments in Japan" (PDF). Japan Fair Trade Commission. p. 5 (figure 1). Retrieved 19 July 2025.
  5. ^ Japan Fair Trade Commission. "JFTC's criminal accusation against construction companies over coordination of bids in maglev railway construction project | Japan Fair Trade Commission". www.jftc.go.jp. Retrieved 19 July 2025.
  6. ^ Van Uytsel, Steven. "Legal Research Bulletin". www.law.kyushu-u.ac.jp. Kyushu University.
  • Bisson, Thomas Arthur, Zaibatsu Dissolution in Japan, Greenwood Press, 1976.
  • Fry, James D. "Struggling to teethe: Japan's antitrust enforcement regime," in Law and Policy in International Business, Summer 2001
  • Negishi, Akira & Eisele, Ursula, Recht der Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen, in Handbuch Japanisches Handels- und Wirtschaftsrecht 745-794 (Harald Baum & Moritz Bälz eds., Carl Heymanns Verlag 2011) (in German).
  • Vande Walle, Simon, "Japanese Competition Law in a Nutshell", SSRN 5072330
  • Wakui, Masako, Antimonopoly law: competition law and policy in Japan, 2018, Independently published, ISBN 978-1-7291-8869-9 SSRN 3270141
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