Same Plant, Different Soil: Japan\u27s New Merger Guidelines Symposium on Competition Law and Policy in Developing Countries

Japan\u27s New Merger Guidelines ( New Merger Guidelines ), issued by the Japan Fair Trade Commission ( JFTC ) in May 2004, mark a turning point for antitrust in Japan. It is likely that Japan\u27s New Merger Guidelines will be seen as a model for legal transplants in the future. Despite the similarities between Japan\u27s New Merger Guidelines and the U.S. Horizontal Merger Guidelines ( U.S. Merger Guidelines ), Japan\u27s New Merger Guidelines are unlikely to be a success in the same way that the U.S. Merger Guidelines have been a success since their adoption by the American competition agencies. Although Japan is far from a developing nation or a transitional economy, Japan\u27s experience importing critical features of the U.S. Merger Guidelines canprovide useful lessons. For developing countries also undertaking major revisions to their competition laws, Japan\u27s experience may show that the text of a legal transplant is only one important consideration. Additionally, the context of competition law and the subtext of changes to the existing norms of economic regulation may be just as important to importing antitrust law into developing nations or transitional economies