Japan Fair Trade Commission

The Fair Trade Commission of Japan is an independent statutory agency established on July 1, 1947 to enforce Japan's Antimonopoly Act in the aftermath of the postwar Allied occupation, with its authority later expanded to cover the Subcontract Act and Freelancer Act. It regulates private monopolization, unreasonable restraints of trade, unfair business practices and abuse of superior bargaining position, reviewing roughly 300 merger and acquisition transactions a year and pursuing cartel enforcement through a leniency program introduced in 2006. Headquartered in Tokyo's Minato ward and led by a chairman and four commissioners nominated by the prime minister, the commission has in recent years increasingly focused on major technology companies.