We hereby notify that Rakuten, Inc. (“Rakuten,” Chairman and CEO: Hiroshi Mikitani, Head Office: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo) has filed with the Japan Fair Trade Commission an application pertaining to the alignment of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Google Inc., pursuant to Article 45, Paragraph 1 of the Act on Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade.
The alignment of these two firms could constitute the monopolization of information by Google, Inc., which would risk harming the development and growth of not only the search engine business, but also many other Internet-related services in Japan. We believe that this case requires further in-depth discussions and review by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and relevant parties.