Japan FTC Advises Kadokawa Not Underpay Subcontractors

Tokyo, Nov. 12 (Jiji Press)--The Japan Fair Trade Commission advised Tuesday that major Japanese publisher Kadokawa Corp. and its magazine unit never unilaterally cut commissions for subcontractors again.

According to the antimonopoly watchdog, Kadokawa in January 2023 notified 26 subcontractors including writers for the Lettuce Club monthly magazine of its plan to reduce payments to them by up to 39.4 pct from the April issue the same year without advance negotiations. Most of them faced over 10 pct cuts.

The payment cuts were aimed at improving Kadokawa’s balance sheet amid declining revenues and rising material and logistics costs in the Lettuce Club business, the FTC said.

The wholly owned unit, Kadokawa LifeDesign Inc., applied similar reductions to 21 subcontractors after taking over the magazine business from the parent in April this year, it noted.

Some of the subcontractors told the FTC that they could not make complaints about the payment cuts for fear of losing jobs and that they thought their protests would change nothing because Kadokawa is too powerful.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]