December 27, 2023 Results of Solicitation for Opinions on Draft Revisions to Guidelines for Promotion of Competition in the Telecommunications Business Field and Announcement of Guidelines

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) solicited opinions on a draft of revisions to the Guidelines for the Promotion of Competition in the Telecommunications Business Field from Thursday, November 16, through Friday, December 15, 2023. As a result, two opinions were submitted.
Accordingly, MIC, along with the JFTC, makes the opinions submitted public, along with their views on them. In addition, based on the results of the solicitation for opinions, they announce the revised Guidelines for the Promotion of Competition in the Telecommunications Business Field.

1. Results of solicitation for opinions

In November 2001, MIC, in cooperation with the JFTC, issued the Guidelines for the Promotion of Competition in the Telecommunications Business Field (hereafter referred to as the “Guidelines”), which prescribes basic concepts and problematic acts concerning the Telecommunications Business Act (Act No. 86, 1984) and Antimonopoly Act (Act No. 54, 1947), respectively, with a view to promoting competition in the telecommunications business field. The Guidelines have since been in a series of revisions.
MIC, along with the JFTC, drafted the revisions to the Guidelines based on the recommendations in the “Report on Verification of Competition Rules 2023,” compiled by the Working Group on Verification of Competition Rules (headed by Chief Investigator NIIMI Ikufumi, Professor Emeritus at Meiji University) under the Meeting for Telecommunications Market Validation, which examined the implementation status of Article 27-3 of the Telecommunications Business Act and issues related to mobile markets and others. As a result of the solicitation for opinions from Thursday, November 16, through Friday, December 15, 2023, two opinions were submitted.
The submitted opinions and MIC’s views on them are shown in Attachment 1.

2. Guidelines

Based on the results of the solicitation for opinions, the Guidelines for Promotion of Competition in the Telecommunications Business Field have been revised. (The comparison table of the old and new versions is in Attachment 2, and the amended version is in Attachment 3.)

3. How to obtain materials

The materials will be available for inspection and distribution at the Tariff and Telecommunications Access Policy Division, Telecommunications Business Department, Telecommunications Bureau, MIC (10th floor, MIC). They will also be posted in the Public Comment section of the e-Government (e-Gov) portal (https://www.e-gov.go.jp).

*The published materials are in Japanese only.