Diesel Fuel Cartel: Industry’s Selfishness Ignores High Prices

Editorial

14:41 JST, September 18, 2025

Fuel prices remain high due to factors such as ongoing wars overseas and the weak yen. Under such circumstances, it is utterly unacceptable if companies were intentionally driving up diesel fuel prices, which directly impact logistics costs.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission has launched a compulsory investigation into several companies that sell petroleum products on suspicion of forming a cartel to raise diesel fuel prices and for other purposes in violation of the Antimonopoly Law, which covers unfair trade restrictions. The JFTC searched eight companies in Tokyo and elsewhere over their alleged sales of diesel fuel to other businesses, including transport firms.

The eight companies allegedly purchased diesel fuel from petroleum wholesalers and sold it to transport and construction companies. They reportedly hold a majority market share. A price war can ensue when competition for sales intensifies, potentially shrinking profit margins.

The JFTC believes that the eight companies held meetings with the aim of driving up prices in order to avoid such a situation.

Diesel fuel is used for large vehicles, such as trucks and buses. If a cartel causes diesel fuel prices to remain high, which increases transportation costs, this could ultimately be passed on to the prices of goods that consumers purchase or the costs of public works projects. The impact is by no means small.

To keep gasoline and diesel fuel prices from soaring, the central government has provided subsidies to petroleum wholesalers, budgeting over ¥8 trillion in this effort to date. The subsidies are primarily intended to help ease the burden on consumers. It would be an egregious act if prices were unfairly driven up despite this.

Salespersons and others from the eight companies reportedly held regular meetings to exchange information on diesel fuel purchase prices and their own companies’ pricing trends.

The JFTC is investigating the case with an eye on filing criminal charges. When did these meetings begin? How much were prices inflated as a result of the cartel? It is essential to clarify the entire picture of this case.

The average retail price of diesel fuel was about ¥116 per liter five years ago, but it has now risen to around ¥154 due to factors such as Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

The rise in diesel fuel prices is a serious issue for small and midsize transport companies. They are in a weak position in relation to shippers, making it difficult to pass along the increased costs in their freight rates.

A transport company said that a ¥1 increase in diesel fuel prices requires several million yen in additional sales.

According to a private research firm, bankruptcies in the transport industry have increased in recent years, reaching 353 cases last fiscal year. Bankruptcies attributed to rising costs, including soaring fuel expenses, accounted for about 30% of the total.

Regarding gasoline, it was also uncovered that gas station operators and others in Nagano Prefecture had formed a cartel. Don’t these companies engaging in misconduct see people struggling under the burden of fuel costs?

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 18, 2025)