Japan’s ‘ice cream cartel’
Six major companies are accused of colluding to raise prices beyond cost of inflation and ingredients
By Harriet Marsden
Summer is “a boom time for ice cream makers”, said Agence France-Presse – but in Japan, some of the country’s biggest firms are feeling the heat.
Officials from the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) have raided six firms on suspicion of colluding to hike prices in a cartel. Staff are believed to have “sent emails or met up for years to coordinate the timing and size” of the increases, said an anonymous source, violating anti-monopoly laws...
Since 2022, ice cream prices in Japan have risen every year around the same time, as heat and inflation climb. In the fiscal year ending in March, ice cream sales hit a record high of 663 billion yen (about £3.1 billion), according to the Japan Ice Cream Association, as the country sweated through its hottest summer since records began.
Now, the commission is investigating whether major manufacturers colluded to take advantage of inflation and raise their prices above the increase in the cost of raw ingredients, according to Kyodo News.
https://theweek.com/world-news/japan-ice-cream-cartel-antimonopoly-price-rises
Alleged ice-cream cartel in Japan investigated as sweltering summer looms
Six companies are suspected of colluding to use food inflation to raise the prices of their product
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/17/alleged-ice-cream-cartel-in-japan-investigated
Japan’s ice-cream giants face anti-trust heat over suspected cartel pricing
The ice-cream firms allegedly colluded through multiple communication channels to keep prices high
https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/japan/japan-ice-cream-cartel-price-hike-inflation-b2997464.html