Officials from the Fair Trade Commission searched the offices of Asahi Breweries, Kirin Brewery, Suntory Beer and Sapporo Breweries this week, and Hiroo Iwanari said an investigation had begun. The raids targeted the four biggest breweries in Japan, which together control more than 90% of the domestic beer market.
The commission is looking at suspicions that the breweries colluded to set the price of beer and other beverages. Japanese media quoted sources as saying the case could lead to a criminal complaint, a step that would push the probe beyond the raids and into formal enforcement.
Asahi and Kirin
The four breweries are suspected of violating the anti-monopoly law. Their offices were searched in Wednesday’s raids, and shares in Asahi, Kirin, Suntory and Sapporo fell after the action.
For consumers, the immediate issue is whether the investigation produces findings that change how prices are set across a market this concentrated. The companies said they would cooperate with authorities, but the scope of the case matters because beer and related drinks already account for a large slice of alcohol sales in Japan.
Prices for beer
Prices for beer and happoshu have risen multiple times as raw material and logistics costs increased. The four breweries all raised their prices at the same time most recently in April last year, after earlier increases in October 2022 and October 2023.
Japanese media quoted sources as saying sales managers and other executives were suspected of meeting secretly over a prolonged period to coordinate the timing and scale of retail price increases. Those increases ranged from several yen to several dozen yen at a time, and the commission suspects the breweries bypassed proper pricing competition to make sure they made a profit.
Japan’s alcohol sales reached ¥3.8tn ($24.3bn) in 2024, with beer accounting for 30% and beer, happoshu and third-category beer together taking 11.9%. The probe was described as the first of its kind involving the food and beverage industry, and the commission had raided six Japanese ice-cream makers three months earlier over allegations of operating a cartel.
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