abstract

Since the privatization of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation and the liberalization of the telecommunications market in 1985, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has changed its "ex-ante" regulation of the telecommunications business into the "ex-post" regulation in 2004. In April 2004, with the advancement of competition, the Telecommunications Business Law was substantially amended to realize drastic institutional reforms, including the abolition of regulations on market entry, tariffs and agreements, in principle. The regulation system greatly shifted from ex ante to ex post basis. Consequently, the number of enterprises entering the telecommunications market has largely increased, and due to the advancement of technological innovations, the emergence of diverse services such as mobile communications and Internet access, the promotion of deregulatory measures and other factors, the competition among the telecommunications carriers progressed, prompting the significant development of the telecommunications market. Two kinds of drastic structural changes -- "a shift to mobile" and "a shift to broadband and IP" -- are occurring in the Japanese telecommunications market. In such a rapidly changing circumstances, it is essential to evaluate the market competition with a focus on fixed-telephony, mobile communications, and broadband services, in order to figure out the trend of the telecommunications markets accurately and rapidly. The MIC has conducted the Competition Review since fiscal year 2003 to ensure that the tendencies above are reflected in government policies. This article firstly considers about market definition from a legal viewpoint, and secondly, it generalizes the current condition of competitions in the telecommunications business by summarizing the Competition Review, and finally, the article examines the challenges that the Competition Review face in the telecommunications business field.