Telecommunications minister Taro Aso on Friday welcomed moves by foreign funds to hold equity stakes in Japanese broadcasters -- as long as these stakes are under the legal limit of 20 percent.
The minister of internal affairs and communications was referring to the introduction of stricter laws governing foreign investment in domestic broadcasters next spring.
The Diet enacted legislation Wednesday to limit the combined stake of foreign concerns in a domestic broadcaster in terms of voting rights to less than 20 percent, whether they hold the stakes directly or indirectly.
The current laws set a 20 percent limit only when foreign concerns hold stakes directly in Japanese broadcasters.
The revised laws will also include Japanese affiliates in which foreign investors or foreign firms hold stakes in the category of investors to be regulated by the revised laws.
In a news conference, Aso said, "It is true that, basically, competition gets things going. I am not necessarily opposed to introducing foreign funds."
But he defended the revisions, saying, "It is reasonable to regulate foreign stakeholders as we have to reduce the risk of domestic broadcasters being bought out by a certain foreign country" with a certain agenda.
The revisions were hastily worked out in the wake of the attempt by Livedoor Co., an Internet services company, earlier this year to take over Nippon Broadcasting System Inc., a radio broadcaster that was the biggest shareholder in Fuji Television Network Inc. at the time.