February 4, 2022 Request for Efforts to Terminate Existing Contracts in Light of Enforcement of Ministerial Ordinance to Partially Revise Regulations for Enforcement of Telecommunications Business Act

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) today requested 19 telecommunications carriers regarding their efforts to terminate existing contracts. This request was made in light of the enforcement of the Ministerial Ordinance to Partially Revise the Regulations for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Act etc. (MIC Ordinance No. 3 of 2022, hereafter referred to as the “Revised Ministerial Ordinance”).

The Act on Partial Amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act (Act No. 5 of 2019, hereafter referred to as the “Revised Act”) came into effect in October 2019. There were contracts concluded before the enforcement of the Revised Act. Such contracts included those that do not comply with Article 27-3 of the current Telecommunications Business Act (Act No. 86 of 1984, hereafter referred to as the “Business Act”), amended by the Revised Act. Concerning those non-compliant contracts, some exceptional users may be disadvantaged by the transition to contracts compliant with Article 27-3 of the Business Act. Therefore, as a transitional measure, Article 3 of the Supplementary Provisions of the Ministerial Ordinance to Partially Revise the Regulations for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Act (MIC Ordinance No. 38 of 2019) allows, for the time being, the renewal of existing contracts under the same terms and conditions (hereafter referred to as “non-conforming binding conditions”) that unreasonably prevent the termination of the existing contracts.
Against this backdrop, a document entitled “2021 Report on Verification of Competition Rules” (issued in September 2021) was compiled by a Working Group on Verification of Competition Rules (chaired by NIIMI Ikufumi, Professor Emeritus at Meiji University). Accordingly, MIC has decided to take institutional measures to terminate the existing contracts with non-conforming binding conditions as soon as possible. The Revised Ministerial Ordinance was promulgated and enforced on January 31, following a report from the Information and Communications and Posts Administrative Council on January 14, 2022.
In light of the above situation, MIC today requested 19 telecommunications carriers, subject to Article 27-3 of the Business Act since the enforcement of the Revised Act. This request asks them to appropriately implement measures, such as the early termination of existing contracts and non-conforming binding conditions, appropriate guidance explaining to the users under existing contracts, and other public awareness measures.