Japan Ice Cream Cartel: Regulators Allege Years Of Coordinated Price Hikes
According to The New York Times, Japan’s Fair Trade Commission raided six of the country’s largest ice cream makers on June 16, suspecting an illegal price-fixing cartel.
The companies, Meiji, Morinaga Milk Industry, Morinaga & Co., Lotte, Ezaki Glico and Akagi Nyugyo, allegedly violated Japan’s Antimonopoly Act. Investigators believe senior executives met and exchanged emails over several years to synchronize the timing and size of price hikes, reportedly raising frozen dessert prices by 5% to 10% on multiple occasions. NHK aired a chart showing two rival products raised four times between June 2022 and September 2025.
This is Japan’s first suspected cartel probe in the ice cream sector, landing as consumers brace for a brutal summer. The firms blame rising ingredient, packaging and labour costs, not collusion.
“We accept with sincerity the fact that our company was raided,” Meiji said.
A few yen per cone looks trivial, but coordinated pricing across an entire industry is theft at scale. Check out our previous coverage of global markets and corporate accountability here.
