The visiting head of a European Commission delegation on telecommunications issues expressed dissatisfaction Tuesday over the results of a two-day meeting with the government in Tokyo and called on Japan to establish an independent regulator to oversee the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group.
But Roderick E. Abbott, the EC's deputy director general for trade, was cautious about filing a case against Japan with the World Trade Organization, saying that step would be "the last resort."
Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, Abbott claimed Japan is lagging behind in implementing policies to promote further competition in the telecom market, which he says is indispensable to become a major player in the global information technology industry.
Abbott claims that a telecommunications regulator should be independent of both the government and telecom companies.
Japan's telecommunications ministry both forms policy for the industry and regulates it, and so the government is not sufficiently separated from the NTT group, Abbott said.
Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry officials argued at another news conference that each country has its own history of regulation, noting that some European Union countries do not have the competition policies that EC officials are demanding of Japan.
Abbott argued that three principles should be established to promote fair competition: the creation of an independent regulator, major players being prevented from abusing their positions and the setting of universal service obligations that are transparent, nondiscriminatory and competitively neutral.
"I have to tell you Japan is not respecting any of these," he said.