April 9/2003
Japan Fair Trade Commission
The Government of Japan adopted "Basic Policy for Corporate and Industrial Revitalization" (December 19th, 2002, Strategic Headquarters for Industrial Revival and Employment Measures) to respond to the issue of excessive debt and the issue of excessive supply structures and decided to adopt all consistent policy measures for the corporate and industrial revitalization. The Basic Policy provides that the Fair Trade Commission should adopt guidelines for acceleration of merger investigation, with cooperation of concerned parties, especially on the cases which will be objects of the Law on Special Measures for Industrial Revitalization.
In such situations, on February 5th the Fair Trade Commission published the draft of the Guidelines for merger investigations on the cases concerning Corporate and Industrial Revitalization seeking wide range of comments from concerned circles and finalized it today.
Types of cases which are objects of fast-track investigations
(15 days' initial investigations)
(i) In not concentrated market (Herfindahl-Hirschman Index ("HHI") is below 1,000), the concerned parties' market share is not more than 25%
(ii) In not highly concentrated market (HHI is below 1,800), the concerned parties' market share is not more than 25% and there is one or more competitor(s) whose market share is not less than 10%
(iii) In not highly concentrated market (HHI is below 1,800), the concerned parties' market share is not more than 35% and there are two or more competitors whose market share is not less than 10%
(iv) The degree of increase of the concerned parties' market share is small (increase of HHI is below 100)and there is one or more competitor(s) whose market share is not less than 10%
(v) The concerned parties' market share is not more than 50%, one of the concerned parties is a failing firm, or one party's concerned division is a failing division and there is no other alternative that is less influential on competition than merger by the other concerned party
*Every announcement is tentative translation. Please refer to the original text written in Japanese.
