The Japan Fair Trade Commission plans to set up a new department to focus on surveillance of major IT firms like Apple and Google over possible anticompetitive practices.

Informed sources said the country's antitrust watchdog will establish the section as early as in April 2025 to investigate and regulate such companies.

They said the commission will outline the need to strengthen its antitrust oversight of technology giants, including securing human resources specialized in the task, in its budget proposal for fiscal 2025.

The move comes amid growing concerns over smartphone-related monopoly and oligopoly involving GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) and similar companies.

The sources said the new department will monitor to check whether business operators that supply basic smartphone software such as app stores and search engines are impeding fair competition and crack down on any misconduct.

The commission plans to request about 17.4 billion yen for the new department in the budget for the fiscal year starting next April, up around 5.2 billion yen from the current fiscal year.