The United States called on Japan on Monday to promote competition in its telecommunications and medical services markets, Japanese government officials said.
Representatives from the U.S. Embassy made the request at a meeting of the Council for Regulatory Reform, a government panel that advises Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, they said. The call comes as Tokyo works to push through various deregulatory programs.
The U.S. representatives proposed the establishment of an independent regulatory body to ensure fair competition in the telecommunications market, the officials said.
The U.S. officials told the panel Washington will submit a set of deregulation requests to the Japanese government.
Also during the meeting, officials from the Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) called on the government to further ease labor market regulations. , government officials said. The panel invited officials from the U.S. Embassy and Keidanren to the meeting to hear their views on an interim report that it released in July.
The report proposed deadlines for deregulatory action in six priority areas: medical services, care for children and the elderly, personnel training and employment, education, the environment, and urban redevelopment.