FTC raids 14 firms over bid-rigging for school PCs in Hiroshima

The Fair Trade Commission has conducted on-site inspections of 14 companies on suspicion of repeated big-rigging for contracts to supply personal computers to public schools in Hiroshima Prefecture, it was learned Wednesday. The firms raided by the commission for their alleged violations of the anti-monopoly law included Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corp., Otsuka Corp., Fujitsu Leasing Co., Solcom Co., Hi-Elecom Co., Hokushin-Eiden and Shinsei Kogyosha Corp., according to sources with knowledge of the matter. The antitrust watchdog plans to search the firms' offices in the prefecture. NTT West, a unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., is based in Osaka, while Otsuka and Fujitsu Leasing are based in Tokyo. Solcom, Hi-Elecom, Hokushin-Eiden and Shinsei Kogyosha have their head offices in the city of Hiroshima, the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture.