In June, there have been three press releases, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), that explain that the MIC issued administrative guidance to unfaithful telecommunications sales companies. These sales companies have been selling new optical fiber products to customers with existing optical fiber products by falsifying who they are and this infringes on Article 27-2 of the Telecommunications Business Law.

In the business area where the rate of sales commission is high, there should be some sales companies whose strategy is seducing customers to switch an almost same service from one company to another. One notorious recent example is that the Japan Post’s insurance company was institutionally switching one product of an existing customer to a new product without getting customer’s approval. Long time ago, when Softbank entered the telecommunications market with its ADSL service, its sales activity was quite unique and something close to unacceptable. 

Consumer protection administration is getting important recently. For example, the Consumers Affairs Agency (CAA) was established in 2009. For consumer protection about telecommunications services, the MIC created one consumer affairs division in the 2000s and this division became two in the 2010s. Creating a new division in the Japanese government needs destroying an existing division and so this history tells us that the importance of consumer protection is becoming higher for telecommunications administrations.

Historically, the Japanese government’s positioning had been pro-industry and so it had focused on promoting measures to grow companies in the industry. In the era of the post-war booming economy, the government was called as the operation room of the Japan Inc. With the recent regulatory reforms implemented in major industries including telecommunications, the center of gravity changed from industry to consumers. Any company in the telecommunications industry should understand this long-time power shift to command its business.

[Topics: Administrative guidance and consumer protection]

On May 20, 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) proposed a draft set of new international technical standards, with which non-certified radio equipment can be operated experimentally, and asked for public comments to this proposal. If there is no serious and logical opposition to this proposal, the new international standards can become valid in a month or so.

In the 2019 revision to the Radio Law, non-certified radio equipment can become operated experimentally for up to 180 days, if such equipment is following some international standards. (See our memo about this revision.) The MIC is this time proposing a list of these international standards. The newly proposed list is written below. 

1) Technical regulations specified in Chapter 3 of the Radio Law

2) Technical standards specified in ITU-R recommendation M. 1450-5 and IEEE’s IEEE802.11 families.

3) Some technical standards specified by Bluetooth SIG.

4) IEEE’s IEEE802.11ax and IEEE802.15.4 families

5) ARIB STD-T107 and ARIB STD-T108

6) LoRaWAN AS923

7) Sigfox RC3

8) Technical standards specified in ITU-T recommendation G.9959

9) A-GN6.00 specified by XGP Forum

10) Some technical standards specified by ETSI

The MIC is also proposing a new way to check how radio equipment is complying the above international technical standards.

This new regulation and this new list will accelerate the companies to experimentally demonstrate newly developed radio equipment aligned with new international standards in exhibitions, potential customers in Japan, etc. This list also tells us that if someone wants to experiment new technologies that have not yet become mainstream international standard, he/she has to follow traditional regulatory procedures in the Radio Law.

[Topics: Experimental station, public comment and equipment authorization]

On April 24, 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) announced that it would revise relevant ministerial ordinances to grant a regular regulatory status to mobile phone deterrent device that has been operated as experimental status for over two decades. This case tells us an example that a new radio device regulatorily treated as experimental service can become regular service.

Mobile phone deterrent device is now becoming popular in concert halls, driver’s license examination centers, etc. where noisy mobile phone operations should be strictly deterred. The number of licenses granted to this device now amounts to over 200, but it has been also popular by industry experts that this device is still used as experimental service under the Radio Law. 

Mobile phone deterrent device became allowed to operate based on a recommendation from a study group under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1998. From the nature of how radio is used by this device, the Ministry could not make a clear decision about how to classify this device or moreover to eventually accept this device under the Radio Law. In 2019, another study group under the MIC presented a recommendation to grant a regular status to this device and the MIC finally made a decision to classify this device as special service, a category of regular service, under the Radio Law.

The recommendation from the study group of 2019 is based on a proposal from Tele-pause Co., Ltd., which is a leading provider of mobile phone deterrent devices. With this regular status, we believe that the number of this device used will increase dramatically, mainly because main users of this device are regional governments who should be keen to regulatory credibility of this device.This example also tells us that people can start operating new radio services that are not classified in the current Radio Law under an experimental status.

Moreover, this case tells us another interesting issue. Before revising relevant ordinances for introducing new radio devices, the MIC usually requests its advisory council to have technical discussions. This time, without this request, the MIC drafted revisions and asked for public comments. Then, several public comments proved that the draft was technically inadequate and the MIC needed to modify multiple technical parts of the draft. MIC’s showing such an inadequate draft for public comments and having such major modifications to this draft can be rarely seen.

[Topic(s): New technologies, technical regulations and experimental station.]

On March 18, 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) proposed a draft set of new technical regulations for the 2.4 GHz band sensing system, and asked for public comments to this proposal. This case of introducing new technical regulations can tell us one example of unique regulatory system under the Radio Law.

There are wearable terminals like smart watch on the market that can sense heart rate, etc. by LED and infrared technologies. Such a sensing can be done more precisely by radio and several radio products using 2.4 GHz band (one of the ISM bands) have been already introduced in foreign countries. The core technology of these 2.4GHz band sensing products is basically same as the 2^nd generation wireless LAN. This means that the technical regulations to follow should be also basically same for these sensing products and the 2^nd generation wireless LAN.

It is known that relevant regulations in the EU and the US to these sensing products and the 2^nd generation wireless LAN are only specifying technical specifications and are not specifying how these products should be used. Therefore, new sensing products could enter the market without any regulatory headache: the existing technical regulations for the 2^nd generation wireless LAN could be applied.

In contrast, relevant regulations in Japan are not only specifying technical specifications but also specifying how these products should be used. Therefore, new sensing products could not be regulatorily allowed to the market and now this MIC proposition is made to the public. 

When introducing a new product with new radio technology, usually new technical regulations should be discussed and eventually specified under the Radio Law. This case of introducing the 2.4 GHz band sensing system is exceptional in that new technical regulations are not needed and more or less only editorial revisions to current technical regulations are necessary. This means that this case tells us the shortest regulatory process to revise the current technical regulations.

The MIC first presented a concept of this proposition, on December 5, 2019, to the Land Radiocommunication Subcommittee of the Information and Communication Council, which is a Minister’s advisory council. Then today the MIC presented a draft set of new technical regulations for public comment. It will usually take one month to collect public comments, another one month to reach the final draft set, and another one month to promulgate the new regulations. 

In summary, this case tells us how long it takes to go through the shortest regulatory process to revise the current technical regulations under the Radio Law: 7 months after this case surfaced to the public. By imagining preparatory research/discussion/coordination before becoming public, this case tells us that we have to wait at least a year for new products on the market.

[Topic(s): New technologies, administrative procedure, public comment and technical regulations.]