The new head of Japan’s anti-monopoly regulator said on Monday that Japan will work with US and European counterparts to crack down on any abuse of market power by the four major US technology companies, which means that Japan will also join the ranks of global regulatory digital platform operators. .

Ichiyuki Furuya, chairman of the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) who just took office in September, claimed that if the scale of the acquisition or merger is large enough, such as Google's acquisition of fitness tracker manufacturer Fitbit, the agency will launch an investigation. He said: "We are closely following developments including Europe."

The EU antitrust regulator launched an investigation into Google’s US$2.1 billion bid for Fitbit in August, which aims to challenge Apple and Samsung in the wearable technology market. Japan is regulating the behavior of platform operators, including the large technology giants known as "GAFA", namely Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook, which are facing various antitrust investigations in Western countries.

Ichiyuki Furuya said that multinational companies like GAFA have adopted similar business practices around the world, which makes global coordination essential. He said: "We will work closely with our counterparts in the United States and Europe. If there is any action that hinders competition, we will respond. This is an area that I will actively promote."

He also added that if digital platforms abuse their dominant market position to infringe consumer interests, the FTC is ready to investigate. At the same time, the FTC will conduct research on the Japanese mobile phone market to see if there is any room for improvement to stimulate competition.

Any such measures will contribute to Prime Minister Yoshihide's great efforts to cut Japan's mobile phone tariffs, and he has repeatedly criticized the excessively high mobile phone tariffs. However, Ichiyuki Furuya opposes directly helping the government realize its policy priorities, saying this may weaken the FTC's status as an independent regulator. (Little)

Source: NetEase Technology Report, translated by Google Translate