The surprise raid by Japanese antimonopoly authorities on Microsoft Corp.'s Tokyo offices was impeccably timed -- barely a month before the European Union slapped a $613 million fine on the company.
The message from the Fair Trade Commission was clear: Japan is not about to sit on its hands while other global powers raise concerns over Microsoft's suspected abuse of its domination of the computer software business.
But whether the Japanese investigation that triggered the commission's inspections of the software titan's Tokyo offices will amount to much more than symbolic posturing remains unclear, experts say.