UIII Library Digital Collections

The history of cartel registration in Japan deserves special attention for several reasons. First, the country had the world’s most institutionalised and encompassing cartel registration system during the second half of the twentieth century. The extant literature on cartel and competition policy in Japan in English and Japanese is quite extensive. The rise of the Japanese economy by the end of the 1980s and trade frictions with its major trade partners motivated a plethora of studies on cartels, cartel policy, and the business-state relationship in Japan. The development of competition policy in Japan was far from linear. It was marked by swings, especially when one focuses on the formal policy settings. The early history of cartel and related competition policy in Japan bears a significant resemblance to that of other industrial nations, although certain delays and early maturings can also be observed. As early as in mid-1880s, nationwide trade associations had sprung up in some transplanted large-scale sectors of industries.