Japan victory over mobile carriers triggers a 3.8-trillion-yen rout

Docomo reduced its forecast for net income in the current fiscal year by about 3.6 per cent to 670 billion yen, which would mark a 10 per cent drop and the first annual decline in years

NTT Docomo led a 3.8 trillion yen ($34 billion) stock rout of Japan’s top three mobile carriers after it appeared to cave in to pressure from the government, which has long claimed the nation’s phone bills are among the highest in the world. Docomo, which said on Wednesday it may cut rates 40 per cent and “return” 400 billion yen to customers, plunged as much as a record 15 per cent in Tokyo trading on Thursday. Rival KDDI tumbled as much 17 per cent, and SoftBank Group slumped as steeply as 9.1 per cent amid concern that they will follow