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Japan's antitrust regulator raided Recruit Staffing and four rivals over alleged dispatch-fee price-fixing cartel
Jun 2, 2026Japan's Fair Trade Commission conducted on-site inspections on June 2, 2026 of five major temp-staffing firms, including Recruit Holdings subsidiary Recruit Staffing, on suspicion executives colluded around November 2022 to raise dispatch fees by roughly 100 yen/hour starting April 2023. The JFTC said the firms appear to have used labor-shortage and wage-hike momentum to 'reap unjust profits' rather than pass gains to workers: over the prior eight years, fees charged to client companies for general clerical dispatch work rose about 25% while wages paid to Japan's 2.2 million dispatched workers rose only about 21%. The investigation was ongoing as of the JFTC's public statement, with no findings or penalties yet issued.