Policy Changes to the Tech Markets in Japan

Japanese policymakers should hold open the choice of toughening rules on technology titans if an e-commerce law delivered this month does not go as planned. Commented by a lawmaker observing the party’s debate on competition policy.

On the 1st of February Japan joined the global trend upon the increase of investigations into the plausible antitrust exertion by the large tech giants. The legislation requiring disclosure of information such as terms of contracts with business partners, how search rankings operate, and reasons for suspending or refusing vendors.

Global e-commerce is clouded with social media firms concerning the tech market dominance. Europe and Australia are currently confronting the issue in which allows leeway in how much information companies must submit.

“If this joint regulatory approach isn’t sufficient, we have to make rules gong step further” Tatsya Ito, a ruling liberal demographic party lawmaker commented.

Japan’s e-commerce market was worth 19 trillion yen ($180 billion) in 2019. Its app store market reached $20.2 billion in 2020. Amazon Inc. and Rakuten Inc. were the largest e-commerce operations in 2018 report to the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) explains.

Under the new law operations of shopping and app sites with a minimum of 200-300 Billion yen must show annual reports to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.