As competition hots up in the Japanese telecoms market and the giant NTT Corp starts cutting its tariffs in order to fend off the new competitors, many carriers are finding it hard to significantly undercut rivals. Last week, Japan Telecom said it would cut its three-minute long- distance call rate by 10 yen to 90 yen, the same rate earlier announced by NTT. The move will slash Japan Telecom’s annual revenues by $225m. According to the company’s president Koichi Sakata, it had wanted to cut tariffs further than NTT but could not risk further cuts into its earnings. Two other carriers DDI Corp and Teleway Japan have yet to announce plans to cut rates but such a move seems inevitable.
