Re: Japan Microsoft Investigation

["HIDAKA, Kazuaki" <Chaos@infonet-dev.co.jp>]

  Taketaro Yabe, Secretary-general of the Fair Trade Commission (JFTC),
  a Japanese antitrust watchdog, said Wednesday at a press conference
  that JFTC will be looking into Microsoft(MS)'s business practices
  in Japan. A tying arrangement by the company would be illegal here,
  too. Therefore, I guess JFTC will, under the U.S.-Japan bilateral
  antitrust cooperation treaty, aggressively communicate and share
  related information with the Antitrust Division of the Justice
  Department. I will follow up the development, if any.
  
  President of a Japanese major PC manufacturer said Wednesday that
  his company has "voluntarily" preinstalled Microsoft's Internet
  Explorer on the personal computers (PCs) it sold. Japanese PC makers
  as a whole, with PC sales market depressed, may be concerned that
  the Department's motion in Federal District Court this week has a
  some negative impact on MS's schedule to introduce its new Windows
  98 operating system.
  
  BTW, (1) do you think the Department's action was too late, with
  Windows 98 introduction close at hand? (2) Does it appear to be a
  desperate, last remedy? (3) Why do you think it intentionally
  avoided mentioning Windows 98? (4) Why do you think MS refered to
  its IE 4.0, and not IE 3.0, in its Monday statement? (5) Could you
  tell me the website where DOJ reportedly made publicly available
  Thirsday depositions by people of five PC makers, including Compaq,
  Gateway 2000 and Micron Technology, and a June 1996 letter of MS to
  Compaq? I think these questions are ones which many Japanese
  intersted people, including me, certainly have.
  
  Sincerely yours,
  
  =====
  Kazuaki Hidaka
  e-mail: Chaos@InfoNet-Dev.Co.Jp
  home page: htt