June 17, 2026
TOKYO – The Japan Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday began on-site inspections of six companies, including major confectionary manufacturers, on suspicion of violating the Antimonopoly Law, based on allegations that they formed a cartel to control the suggested retail prices of ice cream products.
This is the first time the JFTC has investigated an alleged cartel in the ice cream industry.
The agency is set to launch a full-scale investigation of the companies, suspecting that they shared information on their respective moves and raised the prices simultaneously when continuously increasing the prices due to recent surging inflation.
The six companies are Meiji Co., Lotte Co., Morinaga Milk Industry Co. and Morinaga & Co., all based in Tokyo, as well as Osaka Prefecture-based Ezaki Glico Co. and Saitama Prefecture-based Akagi Nyugyo Co.
According to sources, executives and others working at the firms are believed to have met or exchanged emails regarding the suggested retail prices of ice cream products to share information on increase margins and the timing of price revisions before price hikes, starting at least several years ago.
The companies supply their ice cream products to supermarkets and convenience stores nationwide. Generally, when the suggested retail price rises, the wholesale price charged to supermarkets and other retailers also increases, often leading to retail price hikes. The JFTC believes that because of the cartel, consumers might have been obliged to purchase products at higher prices than they otherwise would have paid.
Ice cream prices have continued to rise in recent years due to soaring costs of raw materials such as sugar, packaging materials and logistics. According to the Japan Ice Cream Association, ice cream sales reached ¥663.1 billion in fiscal 2025, setting a new record high for the sixth consecutive year. The unit price per liter rose from ¥605 in fiscal 2022 to ¥724 in fiscal 2025.
Since 2022, the firms have raised ice cream product prices almost every year, with adjustments ranging from ¥10 to several dozen yen depending on the product’s price range. Their price revisions often took place at around the same time, with most of them having implemented price increases in September in the case of 2024 and 2025. In 2019 and 2022, when all the companies increased prices significantly, they also revised prices at roughly the same time.
Believing that the six firms tried to prevent a sales decline and damage to their corporate image by coordinating the timing for price increases, the JFTC plans to analyze submitted documents and interview relevant parties to clarify the circumstances.
When contacted for comment, each of the companies responded to The Yomiuri Shimbun, and at least one of them said that it will respond to the matter after confirming the details in-house.