The Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday it plans to revise and update the Antimonopoly Law to reflect the recent weakening of "keiretsu" conglomerates.
The revisions, which will be submitted to the Diet during the ordinary session scheduled to convene in January, include removing limits on the amount of shares large firms and securities houses can own in other companies.
A clause limiting large companies to stakes no bigger than their capital or net assets was added in 1977 in response to the growing power of general trading houses seeking to form conglomerates.
This clause is now redundant, according to an FTC official.
In addition, securities houses will be excluded from the current 5 percent limit on financial institutions' stakes in other-sector companies, the official said.
The revisions are based on recommendations featured in a report compiled by a study group led by Kenichi Miyazawa, a professor emeritus of Hitotsubashi University, the FTC said.