Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: ”Administrative guidance for LINE and Yahoo, not forcing sale of shares” = Korean media report

Amid controversy over the administrative guidance issued by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to Yahoo! Inc., which ordered the company to "reconsider its capital relationship with South Korea's Naver Inc.", Japanese officials said the administrative guidance was "not a response to the sale of shares."
According to a report by the Korea Yonhap News Agency on the 3rd, Tomohiro Nakamura, a section chief at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, said the previous day, "The purpose of administrative guidance is to provide a security system for appropriate management of entrusted work."
This is the first time that an official from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has made an official statement to the Korean media about this issue.
In March of this year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that LINE and Yahoo! were overly dependent on Naver, which they had outsourced system operations to, and that their cybersecurity measures were insufficient.
Since then, while SoftBank has been trying to become a major shareholder of LINE Yahoo, it has been focusing on online businesses as a "Japanese Political Party."
There are criticisms that the prefecture is trying to drive out Korean companies. In response, Nakamura said, "There are various ways to review the matter, and we are not specifically reviewing capital (relationships)."
In response to the criticism that the administrative guidance contained wording that could be interpreted that way, he said, "The administrative guidance states that 'we are requesting a review of the relationship in which we receive a significant level of capital control from the contractor (Naver)'.
"The document contains the phrase 'a review of the management structure, including the review of the company's management structure,' but it does not contain any mention of selling or streamlining shares."
He continued, "What specific measures should companies take?
"That is not included in the administrative guidance," he emphasized, and said, "The measures to be taken are fundamentally something that the private sector should come up with."
"It is a matter that should be reported by July 1 of this year, and the two administrative guidances given to LINE and Yahoo! should be accepted as a form of pressure for the company," he said.
When asked if this was the case, he replied, "The second one was at the level of 'following up' on the situation," and added, "Honestly, I personally did not expect the media to define it as a second administrative guidance."
Previously, LINE and Yahoo! announced that they would end or reduce the service development and system operation work that they had outsourced to Naver due to administrative guidance.
In the report, the company said it plans to gradually separate Naver and its system by 2026. However, on the 16th of last month, it said that the measures to prevent the recurrence of accidents put in place by LINE and Yahoo were insufficient.
, and launched a second round of administrative guidance.