Japanese competition law
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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.