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The
paper, which cited unidentified sources with knowledge of the
case, did not say when the raid took place.
A Japan Fair Trade Commission spokesman said he could not
confirm the report but added: "I won't say the contents are
incorrect."
An Amazon Japan spokeswoman declined to comment.
Amazon Japan's website booked net sales of $8.3 billion last
year, equivalent to 7.7 percent of Amazon.com's worldwide net
sales. By comparison, main rival Rakuten Inc <4755.T> recorded
e-commerce revenue in Japan of 263.9 billion yen ($2.9 billion)
in the same period.
Amazon's practices toward retailers and e-commerce partners have
also come under scrutiny in Europe.
Germany's Federal Cartel Office began an investigation in
November into Apple Inc <AAPL.O> and Amazon after complaints
that publishers were being forced to accept "unreasonable
conditions" for the marketing of audiobooks.
And the European Union last year opened an antitrust
investigation into Amazon's e-book business, examining whether
clauses in contracts prevented publishers from offering more
favorable deals to Amazon's competitors.
Apple and Audible, Amazon's audiobook business, declined at the
time to comment on the German investigation.
On the E.U. probe, Amazon said it was confident its agreements
with publishers were legal and in the best interests of readers.
Britain's Office of Fair Trading and Germany's Federal Cartel
Office probed Amazon's conditions for third-party sellers
trading on its "Marketplace" platform between 2012 and 2013.
Both bodies closed their investigations after the company
altered policies that banned traders from selling products
offered on Amazon more cheaply elsewhere.
(Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Stephen Coates and
Edwina Gibbs)
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