241 Pizza

He hints, though, that much of his energy has to do with the realisation that Japan has been extremely late to fight the big antitrust battles. He has analysed the approaches of the United States and the European Union, and decided, narrowly, to emulate the latter. However, he refuses to accept that the world outside Japan provides perfect examples of fair trade.

“When we get round to dealing with the retail sector,” he says, “we are going to be so much more strict about curbing the power of supermarkets than you are in Europe or they are in the US. The way the big supermarkets abuse their suppliers — that is the sort of unfairness that is never going to happen here.”

CORPORATE BATTLEFIELD

JFTC inquiries since Kazuhiko Takeshima took over in July 2002

Microsoft: unfair practice

Intel: unfair practice

Aluminium foil industry: price-fixing

Floodgate construction: bid-rigging

Glass wool industry: price-fixing

Mobile ring tones: price-fixing

Motorway warning signs: bid-rigging

Steel bridge construction: bid-rigging

Sewage works: bid-rigging

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