The Fair Trade Commission is contemplating making a revision to the Antimonopoly Law in hopes of being able to submit a bill to the Diet, which is now in session. However, the contents of the revision are still up in the air.
Some of the mass media have blamed the holdup on the business community, saying it is resisting the amendment out of sheer egotism. But the truth of the matter is that the FTC's proposal is being opposed not only by business circles, but also by former FTC officials and renowned scholars in the field.
It has been explained that the FTC's primary goal in revising the law is to roughly double the surcharge it levies on profits earned through unfair means -- now at 6 percent -- to double-digit levels so that Japan can be on par with other industrialized countries. But this hike cannot possibly be justified given the surcharge's current legal characterization, so the FTC has proposed changing it to an "administrative fine," namely one that will collect an amount in excess of the unfairly obtained profits.