Microsoft Japan raided over cloud antitrust concerns
In 2026, Japan’s Fair Trade Commission raided Microsoft over suspected monopolistic practices tied to cloud computing services.
Decades of evolution in the Tokyo market
The company was established in February 1986 under the name Microsoft Company by Bill Gates and Susumu Furukawa. This corporate formation followed the dissolution of a previous alliance between Microsoft and ASCII, a partnership that had operated under the name ASCII Microsoft since 1978.
Kazuhiko Nishi, co-founder of ASCII, had previously secured sales rights for Microsoft products in Japan, driving sales through Microsoft BASIC licenses. Gates and ASCII eventually parted ways as Microsoft prepared for its New York Stock Exchange public offering.
Hardware and localization hurdles were overcome by DOS/V
A major breakthrough arrived in October 1990 when Nippon IBM released DOS/V. Furukawa arranged a meeting with Nippon IBM to secure source code sharing rights. Nihon Microsoft subsequently supplied OEM adaptation kits to local PC manufacturers.
For the Japanese edition of Windows 3.1, the subsidiary collaborated with Ricoh to build two TrueType fonts, MS Gothic and MS Mincho. That development process took two years, delaying the release of Windows 3.1 in the country, but it ultimately established the operating system as a commercial success.
Trade practices drew regulatory scrutiny while workweeks changed
Regulatory pressure has marked multiple eras of the subsidiary’s operations. In 1998, the Japan Fair Trade Commission warned Microsoft regarding uncompetitive trade practices involving the forced bundling of Excel and Word with computers, rejecting manufacturer requests to bundle Excel with rival software like Ichitaro. Further scrutiny followed in 2004 regarding licensing terms that hindered hardware makers from acquiring OEM Windows licenses.
