Nice. Someone is doing something. Apple's app store monopoly together with a 30% commission is a modern form of way-laying.
Meanwhile Google is trying to go the opposite way with mandatory developer registration/verification. In the US we will likely let them. Who needs freedom if there is money to make (and Google is just making a fake security argument.)
It shouldn't be that hard to do with my phone what I want, including accepting the consequences of my actions.
JFTC's full 'Mobile Software Competition Act Guidelines' are available here : https://www.jftc.go.jp/file/MSCA_Guidelines_tentative_transl...
Curious to see how Apple and Google are going to circumvent this.
How is it different to what Apple’s done in the EU, with allowing for third party app stores there.
It seems we in EU got the worst implementation for apple malicious compliance. It should have been similar like this one Japan from the beginning.
how does this interact with Google's push to sign all apps?
Some background:
Japan to open up Apple and Google app stores to competition (2023)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36368735
Japan enacts law to promote competition in smartphone app stores (2024)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40662176
iOS 26.2 to allow third-party app stores in Japan ahead of regulatory deadline (Nov 2025)
Sony and Nintendo stores are still closed I see lol
Sony and Nintendo only sell games. They don't gate access to banks, investments, health insurance, auto insurance, news, movies, social media, car control apps, appliance apps, grocery stores, e-commerce, etc...
That's not to say Sony and Nintendo shouldn't be opened too but their impact is much smaller (game devs) than Apple (nearly all businesses)
Apple didn’t start that way though. Better to open it up now no? Also, a better law would be making the web first class, not adding more stores, with other gatekeepers…
> Also, a better law would be
No, the better law is the one that exists.
Yours doesn't.
Laws aren’t inherently good though… we will see what this does for Japan, I guess.
It should be pointed out that they have way less of a monopoly on the market and way more gaming alternatives exist than Apple and Google.
Apple, Google. Two app stores that are basically necessary for existing in the modern world with a smartphone, which include apps covering Japanese government services.
In the gaming space, you’ve got PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, Steam, Epic Game Store, GOG, a bazillion publisher storefronts, Apple and Google (again), Itch.io, physical media for the big 3 consoles at dozens of brick and mortar retailers, or even installing games directly with no store at all (Minecraft originated from its own online purchase portal).
The switch eshop has youtube which I would count as social media.