Resistance to Neoliberal Regulatory Change:The Japanese Publishing Industry, 1990-2001

This paper provides a new insight into the linguistic element of lobbying concerning the historical transformation of business activities. For this purpose, the paper sheds light upon creation and dissemination of theorisation, simplified claims concerning the consequence of suggested policy change or resistance to it. In the 1990s in Japan, the competition policy was enhanced in general, but there was one notable exemption that allowed for fixing the price of certain copyrighted products, including publications. Incumbents in publishing held interests in maintaining the established practice and the fixed price system remained a crucial part of it. The regulatory agency's theorisation of change emphasized the necessity and benefits of a price mechanism. In contrast, incumbents' theorisation of resistance highlighted the downside of it. Incumbents in publishing disseminated their theorisation widely by collaborating with incumbents in newspapers, who blocked the regulatory agency's theorisation in their media. These activities resulted in the mobilization of politicians in favour of the incumbents. Consequently, incumbents in publishing did not have to fully implement the regulatory agency's plans to introduce a discount and the legal exemption of the fixed price system was protected.