Japan enacts law toughening regulations on tech giants

Breaking the law, however, will not carry a fine or any other penalties. This is to avoid hampering innovation in a fast-changing industry, according to government officials.

So this law has no teeth, and the big tech companies can and will do as they please. Thanks Japan for looking after the little guy and the consumer with this weak, good for nothing bill.

Why don't you enact laws that REALLY matter, like curbing cyber bullying.

I heard of this a while back. Japan Inc. is really looking pretty bad these days. Jealous of the foreign companies.

Nary a mention of tax (evaded) -must rankle the gov here...

As usual all talk & NO BITE!!

Govts worldwide really need to LAY into these big thieving companies, they are ONLY it for themselves & will walkover, censor, ban with NO TRANSPERANCY!!!

If we don't reign them in it will only continue to get worse!!!

But hey we can get crap quick right......well we ALL are paying more in MANY ways in the long run!!

Talking out of their rear ends again

Why don't you enact laws that REALLY matter, like curbing cyber bullying.

You can't pass non-draconian legislation to curb bullying.

issue an improvement order??? like the labor bureau... GOV is clearly an accomplice of illegal acts. just political correctness BS

For me looks like government money chest is empty :D

How all that politicians will be able to live if there is no money from tax!

Take it from rich as poor don't have it anymore! Very end of the cycle for me!

Two best jobs in Japan, being politician or public servant.

Breaking the law, however, will not carry a fine or any other penalties. 

They love doing useless things.

"transparent" = give us your ideas! J-tech is desperate for unique, innovative ideas. Always in Ameritech's shadow. Look at the pic. Everyone knows those are American companies.

You mean laws toughing regulations of FOREIGN tech giants. The precious, never plays by the rules Japanese tech giants (oh sorry, there are none) will see none of these regulations put upon them.

@B Weinmann

Japanese tech giants (oh sorry, there are none)

Chuckled at that. Thanx. ; )

I don't like China, but their policy to block Amazon, Google, Facebook has birthed their own Alibaba, Baidu, Tencents, etc. It seems that innovation works when you allow your people to innovate instead of being overwhelm and drowned by giants.

Reckless - I agree, they big US tech have skated by breakup talks because they straddle the two parties so well. GOP is enamoured of the money they make and overseas markets they have huge shares of and the Democrats love the money they get for campaigns. Makes for a toxic soup.

There are many more things that govts should do to ensure giant companies don't have even more unfair advantages over smaller companies and startups. This isn't just for tech/online companies.

Amazon is well-known for crushing competition AND competing their own business partners out of business by finding the manufacturer of the "stuff", contacting those makers, then ordering extremely similar "stuff" sufficient to make the little guy's orders unimportant. Those "Amazon Basic" items are perfect examples where a small company found a niche product that became popular, so Amazon stole it. These little products don't matter much to Amazon, but to the family company who initially designed, marketed, and sold it, their livelihood is gone. Not nice Amazon.

This shouldn't be allowed. Any "marketplace" solution provider should be required to be an impartial market, without any offers by the market owner allowed. Online, or physical shouldn't matter. Google's Play store shouldn't have any google software on offer. Same for Apple's, eBay, Amazon, and the 50 other online "markets."

Costco, Walmart and most grocery chain stores do something similar with their "house brands" for chips, cheese, canned, frozen foods.

I know I can stop dealing with google 100%. Already have.

I know I can stop dealing with MSFT 100%. Already have.

I know I can stop dealing with Twitter, Facebook, Insta-whatever 100%. Already have.

I cannot stop dealing with Amazon 100%. It just isn't possible because almost every small-medium-sized company uses Amazon EC2 and storage for their websites. MSFT and Google are trying to compete in those areas. MSFT has huge growth, but I've been blocking their public rental servers for over a decade and haven't noticed any issues.

I don't like China, but their policy to block Amazon, Google, Facebook has birthed their own Alibaba, Baidu, Tencents, etc. It seems that innovation works when you allow your people to innovate instead of being overwhelm and drowned by giants.

1) Those Chinese versions of Amazon, Google, etc were not birthed by innovations brought on by necessity. China has it's own versions of Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc to fully control content, through censorship and propaganda. 2) It is well known that China rips off other companies to produce copies of products. China doesn't innovate, they emulate. It is their prime business model. They don't even deny it. They see it as a strength to take ideas from others, and a sign of weakness when there is not resistance.

All American Companies are shown here. Seems we all know what is really happening. Japan looks so sad.

Japan continues to openly rely on reports from entities that can "create" and "manipulate" those reports. Hopefully they have a surveillance system which properly verifies such reports.

That said, it has always been a problem in Japan where the major corporations that contribute the most to the GNP and GDP in effect have a semi-monopoly over much of what makes the economy function and are already working with those international giants. Unless incidents such as Nissan occurs within their organization, they will continue to ally themselves with those that are powerful regardless of what country that may be from.

They circumvent monopoly laws by creating Corporate "Groups", acquiring unrelated businesses and allowing acquired companies to stay semi-autonomous.

However, US companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and even Expedia tend to maintain full control over their subsidiaries and often have direct access to the population which affect government policies and procedures as well as national interest. That is especially so when such entities control communication which can influence the entire nation and even the world. That can be extremely dangerous if such entities have an "agenda" outside of each government's interest and authority control, edit and disseminate information that is contrary to and harmful for that country.