PM Abe Asked Advisory Council to Reduce Cellphone Charges

Prime Minister Abe pointed out at the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, September 11, that cellphone charges weigh rather heavily on household economy and directed Finance Minister Takaichi to study means to reduce them, revealed Minister Amari of Economic Revitalization at a press interview after the meeting.

Minister Amari said that the weight of cellphone charges on family budget is proportionally increasing due to a three-way standstill of three portable communications operators virtually dominating the market in the absence of elements of competition. Prime Minister Abe categorically pointed this out to Finance Minister Takaishi, bared Minister Amari.

Cellphone charges for 7gb/month stand still at 5,985 yen across the board. Users who had switched from the conventional feature cellphones to smartphones now pay twice or three times as much. A great majority of cellphone users seldom go beyond 1gb per month, meaning they are practically paying the cellphone bills of a minority of heavy users.

Further, in Japan cellphone charges are set high to cover the cost of initial purchases of terminals. That means, those who stick to their terminals for a longer period are made to pay for the terminals handed free to those who frequently change from one to another.
In fact, fewer feature phone users are switching to smartphones. Senior analyst Satoru Kikuchi of SMBC Nikko Securities points out that smartphone operators will have to introduce a new flexible low-price service plan to expand their market share.

According to MM Research Institute, the domestic shipment of smartphones dropped by 7% to 27.5 million in 2013 over 2012.

The Ministry of International Affairs and Communications has a household economies survey for 2013 which shows a rise in communications expenses by 20.8% while the gross expenditure fell by 3.8% to average 294,540 yen. Percentage wise the communications expenditure increased from 3.7% to 4.6%, the survey shows.