Overview
- Japan’s antitrust regulator, which acted Wednesday, found collusion in cleaning tenders and ordered Shuto Expressway to improve its controls.
- The commission issued exclusion orders to four firms and imposed ¥528,250,000 in surcharges on Subaru Kogyo and Keiyo Road Maintenance.
- Nippon Highway Service and its subsidiary Shuto Highway Service avoided fines after reporting the violations early under the leniency program.
- Investigators said two section chiefs leaked non-public planned prices and base figures from 2017 to 2023, including to a former colleague rehired by a contractor.
- The four companies coordinated winners by entering multiple bids and then withdrawing others, and the recognized awards totaled about ¥25.5 billion, largely funded by tolls paid by drivers.