Account suspensions and advertising practices
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) considered the draft opinions at its fifth FY2026 Monitoring Meeting on Transparency and Fairness of Digital Platforms on October 30, 2026. They will inform the minister's annual platform evaluation. MLex reported that major technology companies face calls to give Japanese businesses clearer explanations and improve how they handle complaints.
Meta's suspension of advertiser accounts drew a sharp increase in consultations with METI starting in January 2026. In response, the draft asks Meta to give specific reasons for suspensions and consider improvements to its complaint-handling and dispute-resolution processes.
For Google, the requests concern both publisher account suspensions and advertising auctions: the draft seeks explanations for suspensions and clearer disclosure of auction fees and how bid prices are formed. TikTok is asked to use its domestic administrator to improve coordination between its Japanese entity and overseas teams.
Scam ads and AI targeting
Celebrity impersonation scam ads are a shared concern in the draft's treatment of Google, Meta, LY Corporation and TikTok. These ads have surged mainly since the second half of FY2023. In METI's FY2025 survey, about 23% of advertisers and 26% of advertising agencies reported harm from such ads on at least one of those four platforms.
Data use is also part of the regulatory scrutiny. Alongside METI's review, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications shared its FY2026 monitoring of user-data handling, identifying AI-based targeting as a new area of attention.
Amazon returns and refunds
Among the Amazon sellers surveyed, about 47% reported problems involving returns or refunds. Those problems included refunds for items that did not qualify under the rules.
The October draft asks Amazon to determine the causes, improve its review operations and use reports from users and sellers more effectively in enforcement.
The legal framework and evaluation timetable
The annual assessment takes place under the Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Specified Digital Platforms, known as the Transparency Act. Established on May 27, 2020, and promulgated on June 3, 2020, the law took effect on February 1, 2021.
Designated "specified digital platform providers" must disclose their terms and conditions, ensure fairness and file annual reports that include self-assessments. The law authorizes the METI minister to evaluate the providers and publish the results.
The designated providers for online shopping malls are Amazon Japan, Rakuten and LY Corporation; for app stores, they are Apple/iTunes and Google. Google, Meta and LY Corporation are designated for media-integrated digital advertising, while Google is also designated for ad-intermediary digital platforms.
Under the FY2026 timetable, the opinions are to be finalized before a draft ministerial evaluation in mid-November 2026. The final evaluation is scheduled for mid-January 2027.
