1
GUIDELINES CONCERNING COMPANIES
WHICH CONSTITUTE AN EXCESSIVE CONCENTRATION
OF ECONOMIC POWER
November 12, 2002
Fair Trade Commission
Preface
The Act for Partial Amendment of the Act Concerning Prohibition of Private
Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade (hereafter referred to as “Antimonopoly
Act”) shall come into force on November 28, 2002, and Section 9 of the Act shall prohibit
establishment or transformation of a company which constitutes an excessive
concentration of economic power by the acquisition or possession of shares (includes
those of employees) of a Japanese company (hereafter referred to as “acquisition etc.”).
Although the conditions of the prohibition shall be defined in Section 9 (3), the Fair
Trade Commission thinks that it is important to achieve greater understanding and
predictability among entrepreneurs of what kind of companies will be prohibited to
establish or transform an existing company into and to strive for transparency by
showing the interpretation of prohibited companies in advance of the enforcement of
this regulation. Therefore, we have drawn up "Guidelines Concerning Companies which
Constitute an Excessive Concentration of Economic Power" and make it public.
Besides it come into force on November 28, 2002 and “Guidelines Concerning Holding
Companies which Constitute an Excessive Concentration of Economic Power” (Issued
on December 8, 1997, Fair Trade Commission) shall be abrogated.
1. Subject of the Regulation
(1) Definition of a Company Group
a. Upon the judgment of constituting excessive concentration of economic power, not
only the company itself but “the company and its subsidiaries and other companies in
2
Japan whose overall business scale over significant number of business fields are
controlled by the company by means of holding of stock “(Section 9 (3)), or “the
company + its subsidiaries + its virtual subsidiaries,” as a company group, should be
taken into the consideration whether the group constitutes exc