Japan Fair Trade Commission Deepens Global Antitrust Cooperation In 2025

In the first months since the appointment of former Ministry of Finance official Eiji Chatani as Chair and Hiroo Iwanari as Secretary General in June 2025, the JFTC has strengthened its long-standing ties with key counterparts in a flurry of high-level meetings, new cooperation arrangements, and active participation in multilateral forums:

• EU-Japan Digital Partnership: In July 2025, the JFTC signed a Digital Cooperation Arrangement with the European Commission's DG COMP and DG CONNECT. The agreement focuses on regulatory coordination under Japan's Mobile Software Competition Act and the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) through the exchange of know-how and market intelligence. (JFTC Press Release)
• U.S.-Japan Bilateral Meeting: In September 2025, Chair Chatani met with FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and DOJ Antitrust Division's Abigail Slater in Washington, D.C., continuing a tradition of bilateral antitrust consultations dating back to the 1970s. The two sides reiterated their long-standing and close relationship, enshrined in the 1999 competition cooperation agreement, which marked the first agreement of this kind for the JFTC. (JFTC Press Release)
• UK-Japan Memorandum of Cooperation: In September 2025, the JFTC and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC), primarily to close the gap left by Brexit which meant the UK fell outside the Cooperation Agreement of 2003 between Japan and the EU. The MoC enables notification of enforcement actions of common interest, coordination of investigations, and information sharing. (JFTC Press Release)
• G7 Competition Summit: At the G7 Competition Authorities and Policymakers' Summit held in Ottawa on October 2, 2025, Chair Chatani joined competition enforcement and government delegates from Canada, the UK, the EU, France, Germany, and Italy to discuss enforcement strategies and emerging policy issues in digital markets. (JFTC Press Release)

The new JFTC leadership clearly puts a priority on strengthening the JFTC's longstanding ties with the international antitrust community. This signals a more unified approach to tackling cross-border anticompetitive conduct in future. For companies operating globally, this means greater scrutiny and the need for consistent compliance across jurisdictions.

JFTC striving for world-class enforcement power

The recent activity on the global stage indicates that the new JFTC leadership is continuing their predecessors' mission to ensure the JFTC is one of the top authorities in the world in terms of enforcement power and competition-policy planning. While the budget and headcount of the JFTC have been significantly increased in recent years, in particular by adding economic and technical expertise, deepening international cooperation is another important component to achieve this goal.

In digital regulation especially, the Japanese government has been keen to avoid the impression that Japan is softer on "Big Tech" than, notably, the EU. It is therefore no surprise that the Japanese Mobile Software Competition Act, which is modelled on the EU's DMA, is an area of priority for increased cooperation with the EU.

Interestingly, Japan has escaped the harsh criticism leveled by the US government, including the FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, at the EU and South Korea for their digital market regulation. In stark contrast, the US-Japan Bilateral passed off smoothly, with both sides emphasizing the long-standing cooperation between the two enforcers (the US is indeed the first jurisdiction with which Japan concluded a formal Cooperation Agreement for competition investigations).

The JFTC's senior representation at the G7 competition summit illustrates its appetite for international cooperation more broadly on competition concerns related to algorithms and generative AI, which is a domestic policy priority for the JFTC.

For merger control especially, the JFTC is increasingly looking at deals that are simultaneously under review in many, if not all, major jurisdictions worldwide. The JFTC appears keen to align its approach in such global cases with that of its counterparts, both in terms of the rigour of the investigation as well as the practical outcomes. Overall, the cooperation agreements do facilitate the JFTC's access to other competition authorities' expertise, including for instance economic modelling or theories of harm. A recent example of a complex multi-jurisdictional merger control case is the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard deal. The JFTC cleared the transaction unconditionally after exchanging information with several other enforcers (including the EU, US, UK and Australia).

Remaining legal barriers to international cooperation

That said, meaningful restrictions under national law remain for exchanging confidential party information, and the discrepancy in the protection of legal advice can complicate a company's strategic approach to international matters.

The exchange of confidential information obtained in the context of an investigation generally remains limited due to restrictions under national procedural rules. For instance, Article 17 of the EU Merger Regulation and Article 28 of Regulation 1/2003 stipulate that information obtained in the course of a merger control or cartel investigation and covered by professional secrecy shall not be disclosed to third parties. This bars disclosure to any person or body other than the EU and Member States' institutions who are concerned by the specific proceedings. Similarly, the CMA may generally not disclose information obtained in the exercise of its functions unless permitted by specific legal gateways, noting that disclosures to overseas authorities are permissible under certain conditions (Part 9, Section 243 of the Enterprise Act 2002).

These limitations are reflected in the recent cooperation agreements with the EU and the UK:

• Under the EU Digital Cooperation Agreement, confidential information, including business secrets, originating from investigated entities and third parties obtained under the Digital Markets Act and the Mobile Software Competition Act cannot be shared without the express consent by the source of the information (point 7.2 of the Digital Cooperation Agreement).
• The MoC allows the exchange of information originating from an investigation, but only to the extent permitted by local laws and subject to protective safeguards (points 7-9 of the MoC). Exempt from disclosure is any information relating to immunity or leniency applications or admission of liability under a settlement procedure, unless with the written consent of the source of the information (point 7.4 of the MoC).

The difference in the protection of legal privilege between Japan and other major jurisdictions needs to be considered in particular when an international case covers Japan.

The concept of preventing access to the advice that a legal professional provided to their client in the context of government or court proceedings is traditionally unknown under Japanese law. This has led to gaps in the protection of legal privilege in international cartel proceedings where the JFTC may seize documents that cannot be accessed by competition enforcers in other jurisdictions. This may not only disadvantage a company in administrative proceedings before the JFTC, but could also impact its discovery obligations in overseas civil lawsuits, notably in the US. To address these gaps, the JFTC has implemented procedures to protect confidential communications between a company and its legal advisors, but the scope of protection is narrower than, e.g. in the EU, UK and US, and the formal requirements are relatively cumbersome to meet in practice.

Companies involved in cross-border investigations need to be aware how legal privilege is treated in Japan as compared to other major jurisdiction. Even well-prepared internal investigations can be compromised if privileged communications are not adequately protected under the procedural rules of all relevant jurisdictions.

How the JFTC's International Cooperation Affects Global Businesses

The JFTC's recent push to deepen international cooperation signals a clear trajectory: Japan is aligning even more closely with major competition authorities worldwide, especially on topics relating to the digital economy and increasing the effectiveness of its enforcement measures.

Businesses operating across these jurisdictions should anticipate:

• Greater regulatory convergence: Regulatory frameworks across Japan and other major jurisdictions are becoming more aligned, especially in digital markets, and enforcement action more coordinated, e.g. in the approach to reviewing international mergers.
• Increased scrutiny of digital markets: The JFTC sees cooperation with its international counterparts as a means to ensure robust oversight of digital platforms on parr with international standards, in particular with regard to economic and technical expertise.

These developments can create both challenges and opportunities: Whilst the JFTC may be levelling up to increase regulatory scrutiny in global investigations, it may also become more receptive to considering complex data or novel (economic) concepts, thus allowing companies to advance additional arguments to support their case.

There may also be an opportunity for advocacy to actively shape the JFTC's thinking on emerging topics not only in the digital markets space, but also in considering broader goals of competition law, such as the promotion of "national champions", innovation, or strategic resilience and national security, particularly in merger control reviews.

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