Japanese Competition Policy in the 1990s: Remaining Uniqueness in the Policy Network

Abstract

Having been relatively closed to foreign businesses for a long time, Japan is being required to make efforts toward a more open market. Pressure from the United States at the beginning of the 1990s initiated a number of reforms, but how much Japanese competition policy has developed since then is controversial. The present study aims to discuss it with particular focus on relational structures in the policy process, or ‘policy network’. The scope of collective action has been reduced as a result of economic internationalization, but the remaining business–government connection seems to have been strong enough to compen-sate for the lack of a comprehensive approach. On top of that, the Fair Trade Commission remains vulnerable to the pressure from politicians and other ministries, despite recent organizational reforms. Those relational stru-ctures are clearly reflected in the current enforcement manner of Japanese competition policy. The policy process toward the removal of holding company prohibition also exhibits the weakness of competition policy authority in the policy network.