By Yuri Kageyama
TOKYO (AP) --Japan's antitrust watchdog said Monday that U.S. search giant Google must fix its advertising search restrictions affecting Yahoo in Japan.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission said in a statement that its recent study of Google's practices showed it was undermining fair competition in the advertising market.
Yahoo Japan Corp., which has since merged with the Japanese social media platform Line, began keyword-targeted search advertising services using Google's technology after the two companies formed a tie-up in 2010.
The FTC alleges that Google had imposed restrictions in its search advertising agreement with Yahoo Japan that for more than seven years hindered its ability to compete in targeted search ads.
An FTC investigation into whether that violated the Anti-Monopoly Law led Google to drop the restrictions.
Google said in an emailed statement that it has cooperated fully with the commission's probe, and stressed the commission has not found it had outright violated anti-monopoly laws. It promised to carry out the commission's directives to offer "valuable" search functions to Japanese users and advertisers.
Line Yahoo declined comment.
Google will be under review for the next three years, to ensure it carries out needed changes, the commission said. It did not impose any fines or other penalties on Google, which remains popular among Japanese.
The commission's move follows another setback for Google in Japan. Last week, Japanese doctors filed a civil lawsuit against the company, demanding damages for what they claim are groundless derogatory and often false comments.
The Tokyo District Court suit demands 1.4 million yen ($9,400) in damages for 63 medical professionals, for reviews posted on Google Maps.
Google said in response that it's working "24 hours a day" to reduce misleading or false information on its platform, combining human and technological resources "to delete fraudulent reviews."
An “Unstoppable” Premiere At The Toronto Film Festival
A few hours before the film about his life, "Unstoppable," was to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Anthony Robles, sitting alongside the actor who plays him, Jharrel Jerome, was remembering the moment he won the NCAA wrestling national title.
He had done something that was, by any measure, extraordinary. Robles was born without his right leg. Through grit and determination, Robles had risen to be the best 125-pound wrestler in the country. But the last thing on his mind at that moment was Hollywood.
"I was sitting there showering off after the match," Robles says. "I was excited and then I was like, 'I gotta find a job. I gotta start getting my resume together.' I never got into any of this for the attention."
"Unstoppable," which premiered Friday night in Toronto, was one of the most-anticipated premieres of the festival partly because of outside drama. The film is produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and co-stars Jennifer Lopez as Robles' mom, Judy. But if all the talk going in was about who would turn up between Affleck and Lopez (Lopez did), the talk after the movie belonged to Robles and Jerome.
The film, directed by the Oscar-winning editor William Goldenberg ("Argo," "Heat") and which Amazon MGM will release in December, is in many ways a conventional sports drama, with an uplifting message and terrific supporting performances from Lopez, Don Cheadle, Michael Peña and Bobby Cannavale. But it also, rather than building toward one big challenge, takes a more naturalistic path. Robles, as played by Jerome, doesn't face a hurdle or two. He faces continual adversity, at home and on the mat.
"That's honestly how I felt going through my life," says Robles, who redshirted as a freshman at Arizona State... Read More