As Japanese markets mature, there are many mergers taking place in markets that are highly concentrated. Indeed, in 2016, plans for five large-scale mergers captured world attention and required a second review by JFTC; these being in the oil wholesale industry, the steel industry, the regional banking sector, and the can manufacturing industry. Although there have been no significant changes in guidelines on corporate mergers in recent years, there has been an on-going and increasingly marked tendency for reviews to explicitly take account of economic analysis, and the outcomes of economic analysis are now clearly presented - even in major merger cases. JFTC has tried to make regulatory decisions on mergers that are based on quantitative evidence wherever possible.

This seminar was targeted at personnel from corporate legal affairs and corporate planning teams, as well as lawyers, and used examples of major merger cases in recent years to explain the two sets of guidelines on corporate mergers as well as to examine trends in reviews and decisions. It also presented examples of the economic analysis used in merger reviews and explained how to use it from a practitioner's perspective; analysis that has become very important.