Can we see reduced phone bills after June in Japan ?

Japan Prices are between US and Germany

• It costs about 7,000 yen a month to use 20 gigabytes in Tokyo, the most among comparable cities including New York, London and Seoul, the ministry’s latest statistics show.
• The cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday approved a proposed legal revision to lower fees for mobile phone services amid criticism that Japanese carriers charge too much compared to other countries.
• The proposed bill to revise the telecommunications business law would ban carriers from offering plans that cover both the price of the phone itself and connection fees. Japanese carriers currently place high fees on data usage in exchange for subsidizing device purchases, a model many users say is needlessly complicated.
• Instead, the companies will need to charge separately for data and devices. By adding the requirement, it will become easier for users to compare services, leading to increased competition and lower prices, communications minister Masatoshi Ishida told a press conference following a cabinet meeting.
• Abe’s government hopes to pass during the current Diet session through June, would also ensure that carriers cannot stop users from opting out in the middle of contracts, which often span two or four years.
• Two of the country’s three major carriers, SoftBank Corp and KDDI Corp, which operates the “au” mobile phone service, say they already comply with the new rules, while NTT Docomo Inc has said it plans to do so this spring.
• The proposed revision will put the three companies, which together control nearly 90 percent of the domestic mobile phone market, in direct competition with smaller rivals such as Rakuten Inc, which have gained popularity in recent years for their cheaper, no-frills services.
• More than 60 percent of the Japanese population own smartphones, and the number jumps to 84 percent when including tablets and other devices.