P.M. BRIEFING : Japan Ready to Ease Store Rules
Japan is ready to comply with U.S. demands to ease enforcement of a law regulating the establishment of large retail stores, the minister of international trade and industry said today.
U.S. trade negotiators listed Japan’s large retail store law as one of several barriers to American imports to Japan.
“At the moment I think it will be sufficient to ease the law, but in three years we may have to make a drastic change,” said Trade Minister Kabun Muto.
The retail store law, designed to protect tiny family stores, requires large stores to seek approval of the smaller stores in a neighborhood before opening.
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