Japan Becomes the Next Region to Mandate Alternative App Stores ⇥ asahi.com

The Asahi Shimbun, in a non-bylined report:

The new law designates companies that are influential in four areas: smartphone operating systems, app stores, web browsers and search engines.

The new law will prohibit companies from giving preferential treatment for the operator’s own payment system and from preventing third-party companies from launching new application stores.

[…]

The new legislation sets out exceptional rules in cases to protect security, privacy and youth users.

Penalties are 20–30% of Japanese revenue. Japan is one of very few countries in the world where the iPhone’s market share exceeds that of Android phones. I am interested to know if Apple keeps its policies for developers consistent between the E.U. and Japan, or if they will diverge.