Excessive competition

Generally, it refers to a state where competition in the market is excessive, but it is often used to refer to competition between companies in particular. There is no clear standard for what is appropriate and what is excessive, and one must judge it according to the situation. In Japan, excessive competition is prominent in the following three areas. The first is the competition to maintain and expand market share, which mainly takes place between large companies, leading to competition for capital investment and sales battles. There are advantages such as price reductions and product development, but there are also many disadvantages such as overlapping investments. The second is the survival struggle between small and medium-sized companies, which compete with each other for low production and labor conditions for short-term profits, leading to a mutual collapse. The third is export competition to foreign markets, and especially when the domestic market is in a recession, there is an increase in torrential, low-priced exports that seek a way out of the domestic market, which causes trade friction. As long as we have a liberal economy, the possibility of excessive competition will not disappear.

[Mitsuo Morimoto]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

一般に市場(しじょう)における競争が度を越している状態をいうが、とくに企業間競争についていうことが多い。どこまでが適正でどこからが過当かについては、明確な基準はなく、状況的に判断するしかない。日本で過当競争が顕著とされるのは、次の3分野である。第一は、主として大企業相互間で行われるマーケット・シェア（市場占有率）の維持、拡大のための競争であり、これが設備投資競争や販売合戦を生み出す。価格引下げや製品開発のような利点もあるが、重複投資のような欠点も小さくない。第二は、中小企業相互間で行われる生存競争で、目先の利益のために低い生産条件と労働条件を競い合い、共倒れ的現象に陥る状態をいう。第三は、外国市場に対する輸出競争であり、とくに国内市場が不況になると、活路を外国市場に求める集中豪雨型の出血安売り輸出が多くなり、貿易摩擦の原因となる。自由主義経済をとる限り、過当競争の可能性はなくならない。

［森本三男］

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