Apple makes iOS changes in Japan to comply with local laws, including alternative app stores and payment options, a new fee structure, and new default controls

Apple today introduced several changes to the App Store in Japan to meet the requirements of the Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA) that goes into effect on December 18.

MacRumors 2025-12-18 Juli Clover

Context & Ripple Effects

Japan’s move follows its 2024 law barring Apple and Google from blocking competing mobile apps and services, after earlier reports that regulators were preparing to require third-party app stores and payment systems.

Apple has already adapted its App Store rules in other regulated markets, including an EU overhaul of developer offers, alternative payments and fees. Japan extends that country-specific compliance pattern to iOS distribution and defaults.

First-order effects

iPhone users in Japan gain additional app-distribution, payment and default-setting choices under Apple’s new local rules.
Developers and prospective alternative marketplace operators can evaluate new routes to reach Japanese iOS users, while Apple applies a new Japan-specific fee structure.

Second-order effects

Payment providers and app-store operators can compete for developer integrations and user transactions that previously flowed through Apple’s standard App Store path.
Apple’s Japanese terms become a practical benchmark for developers comparing the economics and friction of regulated iOS access across jurisdictions.

Third-order effects

If more jurisdictions impose comparable requirements, iOS distribution is likely to become a set of locally tailored rulebooks rather than a single global App Store model.
The key competitive question shifts from whether gatekeepers must open access to how fees, defaults and operating conditions preserve or redistribute platform leverage.

The trend: Mobile-platform regulation is turning app distribution, payments and default settings into jurisdiction-specific competitive layers.

Discussion

@mattcassinelli Matthew Cassinelli on x
Apps in Japan can now request interoperability with core technologies in iOS using this form - fascinating look at potential routes for alternative app stores if it expands https://developer.apple.com/ ...
@mrjefago Jens-Fabian Goetzmann on x
Apple just announced new terms for the Japan App Store. TL;DR: - Commission drops from 30% to 26% if you use IAP (15% stays 15%) - You can use alternative in-app payment or link out to web payment - However, you still need to offer IAP alongside alternatives at least as [image]
r/apple r on reddit
Japan App Store Gets Alternative Marketplaces, Third-Party Payments and More
@timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x
They're imposing a new 5% junk fee on all revenue from apps distributed by competing stores, and intend to surveil all transactions within them using a mandatory reporting API: https://developer.apple.com/ .... This is an egregious Apple imposition on distribution and payments th…
@zkurishi @zkurishi on x
In Japan, new laws aimed at freeing up competition in the industry and improving user convenience, such as allowing sideloading of smartphone apps, have come into effect today, but it seems that these goals will not be achieved immediately. The Japanese government must also keep
@timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x
They're charging a competition-crushing 21% junk fee on third-party in-app payments, and 15% for purchases made on the web (a practice the US District Court already found to be illegal in the contempt of court proceeding that Apple lost and the 9th Circuit Court upheld): [image]

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