September 22, 2022 Result and Report of Solicitation of Opinions on the Draft 2022 Report on Verification of Competition Rules

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) solicited opinions on the “Draft 2022 Report on Verification of Competition Rules” drafted by the Working Group on Verification of Competition Rules (chaired by NIIMI Ikufumi, Professor Emeritus at Meiji University), under the Meeting for Telecommunications Market Validation, from Saturday, July 23, through Friday, August 26, 2022. With consideration of the result of the solicitation of opinions, the 2022 Report on Verification of Competition Rules was finalized by the Working Group, and MIC has decided to release the same.

1. Outline

The Working Group on Verification of Competition Rules (hereafter referred to as the “WG”) was organized under the Meeting for Telecommunications Market Validation in April 2020. As a result of the enactment of the Act Partially Amending the Telecommunications Business Act (Act No. 5 of 2019, hereafter “the Amendment Act”) in October 2019, a legislation system has been put in place to completely separate communications charges and terminal device charges and to rectify the excessive enclosure of customers. Based on this system, the WG aims to evaluate and verify the effects of the measures taken under the Amendment Act and the impact on the mobile communications market.
Since FY2020 after the Amendment Act came into effect, the WG continued evaluation and verification, and it released the 2020 Report on Verification of Competition Rules in October 2020, and then the 2021 Report on Verification of Competition Rules in September 2021.
In 2022, the WG continued analyzing and evaluating the status of enforcement of Article 27-3 of the Telecommunications Business Act and the competitive environment on the mobile market, considering the changes of the environment after the release of the 2021 Report. At the same time, the WG examined issues newly identified in the course of various studies and continued discussing the necessary measures to promote fair competition further.
The WG has compiled the 2022 Report on Verification of Competition Rules based on discussions and the result of the solicitation of opinions. Accordingly, MIC announces the report together with the result of the relevant solicitation of opinions.

2. Result of solicitation of opinions

As a result of the public solicitation of opinions on the draft report from Saturday, July 23 through Friday, August 26, 2022, 26 opinions were submitted.

3. How to obtain reference information

MIC will make the reference information available for viewing and obtaining copies at the contact point.
MIC will also post the reference information on the public comment page of the e-Gov (https://www.e-gov.go.jp/ ).

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  The published material is in Japanese only.