The Japan Fair Trade Commission on October 22, 2026 recommended that Oji Container pay subcontractors for storing printing plates, wooden dies and metal moulds that it had stopped ordering against. The commission, together with the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency and the economy ministry, also asked the corrugated industry's national federation to stamp out the practice across its members.
What Oji Container did
The commission found that Oji Container lent plates and dies, owned by itself or its customers, to 140 subcontractors making cardboard and paper-box products. From June 1, 2024 at the latest to November 26, 2025, it placed no orders for products made with them over a long period. It still left the subcontractors holding 9,610 items without paying their storage costs.
The commission ruled this an improper request for economic benefit, banned under Article 4, paragraph 2, item 3 of the Subcontract Act as it stood before the 2025 amendment. The old law still governs the case: the release says orders placed up to December 2025 fall under it, while those from January 2026 fall under the renamed successor act. The recommendation, issued under Article 7, paragraph 3, calls for the measures needed to protect the subcontractors. The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency had filed its request for action on September 14, 2026.
Who is owed what
Oji Container has already paid something. By July 2026 it paid 127 of the 140 subcontractors a combined ¥3.41mn, after talks with each, for storage costs and related items covering April 2024 to May 2026. The commission treated this as including part of the amount owed for the storage at issue. It had also agreed with the subcontractors by November 26, 2025 on paying future storage costs.
The recommendation calls on Oji Container to pay the rest, to all 140, once the commission has confirmed the amount. The release gives no total for what remains and says nothing about a fine. The recommendation also calls on Oji Container to confirm the finding by board resolution, train its ordering staff on the new act, tell its officers, employees and subcontractors about the recommendation, and report its steps to the commission.
The industry request
The commission, the agency and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry say this is the second such recommendation in a year. An earlier one, on March 13, 2026, involved another cardboard maker, 132 subcontractors and 7,846 plates and wooden dies. Both investigations confirmed that unpaid storage by subcontractors was an industry custom.
The three bodies asked the federation to circulate within the industry the two recommendations and a leaflet explaining that making subcontractors store tooling unpaid is a problem, to urge members to prevent violations and to comply with the law on price pass-through, and to review the custom and follow up afterwards. The commission and the agency said they would keep dealing with violations by cardboard and paper-box makers swiftly and strictly.
What purchasing teams should take from it
The leaflet issued with the case lists metal moulds, printing plates, wooden dies, inspection gauges, machinery, jigs and tools as items a buyer cannot make subcontractors store free when it has stopped ordering for a long period. Buyers who lend tooling, their own or their customers', should check what sits idle at suppliers and who pays to keep it.