June 17, 2026
Japan Fair Trade Commission
Today, I would like to discuss two topics. The first is the establishment and amendment of special designations and related measures to ensure fair transactions. The second is the Consultation Cases on the Antimonopoly Act for FY2025. Let me begin with the first topic: the establishment and amendment of special designations and related measures to ensure fair transactions.
Amended Logistics Special Designations and New Payment Notification
As I mentioned at a previous press conference, based on discussions at the Study Group on Business Transactions and other relevant considerations, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) prepared the following proposals to create an environment for appropriate price pass-through throughout the supply chain, ensure appropriate payment terms, and take further action to address problematic business practices in logistics, and published them on March 12, 2026.
The first is a proposed amendment to the “Specific Unfair Trade Practices when Specified Shippers Assign the Transport or Custody of Articles,” commonly referred to as the “Logistics Special Designations.” The second is a proposed notification provisionally translated as the “Specific Unfair Trade Practices concerning Payment for Manufacturing Consignment, etc.,” referred to here as the “Payment Notification,” together with draft operational guidelines for the notification. The third is a proposed amendment to the “Guidelines Concerning Abuse of Superior Bargaining Position under the Antimonopoly Act,” commonly referred to as the “Guidelines Concerning Abuse of Superior Bargaining Position.”
The JFTC invited comments on these proposals from a wide range of interested parties, with a submission deadline of April 13, 2026, and received 66 comments.
The following day, on April 14, 2026, the JFTC held a public hearing on each of the two proposals: the proposed amendment to the Logistics Special Designations and the proposed Payment Notification. After carefully considering the comments received through the public comment procedures and the views expressed at the public hearings, the JFTC decided to adopt the proposals with technical modifications and published the final versions today.
The amendment to the Logistics Special Designations, which were established in 2004, is the first substantive amendment since their establishment. This is also the first time in approximately 21 years that a new special designation has been established. The amended Logistics Special Designations and the Payment Notification will come into effect on April 1, 2027. The JFTC will continue preparations for their implementation, including public outreach and awareness-raising activities.
As a further step toward promoting fair transactions, the JFTC will conduct the “FY2026 Study on Facilitating Smooth Price Pass-Through and Ensuring Appropriate Payments” to create a trading environment that enables appropriate price pass-through and payment practices.
In recent years, this study has been conducted as a “Special Study” to assess the status of price pass-through and related practices throughout the supply chain. This fiscal year, the JFTC will expand the scope of the study to cover payment terms and other related matters and will also use the study to raise awareness of the Payment Notification published today. Separately, in light of recent developments in the Middle East, the JFTC will conduct an “Emergency Study” to assess the status of price pass-through for petroleum-related products and other affected goods.
Starting on June 26, the JFTC will place a banner linking to the response form on the homepage of its website and launch an online survey (Japanese only). We encourage you to actively provide relevant information through the survey.
For further details on the Logistics Special Designations, the Payment Notification, and the Guidelines Concerning Abuse of Superior Bargaining Position, please contact the Inter-Enterprise Trade Division. Inquiries regarding the “FY2026 Study on Facilitating Smooth Price Pass-Through and Ensuring Appropriate Payments” should be directed to the Office for Surveys on the Prevention of Abuse of Superior Bargaining Position (tentative translation).
Consultation Cases on the Antimonopoly Act for FY2025
Next, I would like to turn to the second topic, the Consultation Cases on the Antimonopoly Act for FY2025.
To help prevent violations of the Antimonopoly Act and support appropriate business activities by enterprises and trade associations, the JFTC provides preliminary consultations on whether initiatives they plan to undertake may raise concerns under the Antimonopoly Act. From among the consultations received, the JFTC selects key cases considered useful to parties other than the original consultees, compiles them into a collection of consultation cases, and publishes the report annually.
The FY2025 report released today contains a total of nine consultation cases: four concerning the activities of enterprises and five concerning the activities of trade associations. The nine cases include consultations on initiatives to address current social challenges, including the realization of a green society, strengthening supply chain resilience, price pass-through, and the so-called “2024 Problem” in the logistics sector.
Let me introduce three specific cases. First, concerning the strengthening of supply chain resilience, four companies engaged in the manufacture and sale of metal materials plan to jointly procure raw materials from overseas (Case 3).
In this case, four companies planned to jointly procure raw materials from a country from which they had not previously imported them. The four companies together account for at least 95% of both domestic procurement of the raw materials concerned and the manufacture and sale of metal materials made from those raw materials. However, the amount to be jointly procured under the initiative would account for only approximately 5% of the total domestic procurement of the raw materials concerned.
In light of the limited scale of the joint procurement and other relevant factors, the JFTC responded that the initiative would raise no concerns under the Antimonopoly Act.
Second, concerning the realization of a green society, a trade association is leading an initiative involving the joint production of a new fuel for transportation equipment and related activities to facilitate its early introduction and thereby contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Case 7).
Although the association members are expected to hold a relatively high combined share of the market for the production of the new fuel, each member would remain free to sell the fuel independently, and the joint production would be limited to the period of its early introduction. In addition, the initiative could lead to the commercialization of a fuel that contributes to the realization of a green society and could have procompetitive effects, including encouraging the development of new technologies and better products. In light of these and other relevant factors, the JFTC responded that the initiative would raise no concerns under the Antimonopoly Act.
Third, concerning price pass-through, a trade association plans to formulate guidelines setting out recommendations for improving its members’ sales practices toward customers, including the appropriate protection of intellectual property and the appropriate sharing of labor costs (Case 8).
The initiative is a form of self-regulation by the trade association. However, it would not restrict the ways in which its members compete or unduly harm the interests of customers. In light of this and other relevant factors, the JFTC responded that the initiative would raise no concerns under the Antimonopoly Act.
These are the key features of the FY2025 consultation cases published today. The JFTC website provides access to a large number of consultation cases included in reports published in past years. Users can search these cases by keyword, type of conduct, and other criteria. As each case outlines the JFTC’s perspective under the Antimonopoly Act, we hope that enterprises and trade associations will refer to this collection of consultation cases to further deepen their understanding of the Antimonopoly Act and help prevent potential violations.
The department in charge of this matter is the Consultation and Guidance Office, Trade Practices Department.
（Tentative translation）
