Japanese police, prosecutors or the Japan Fair Trade Commission will announce at least one new arrest, indictment or cease-and-desist order over a public proposal competition within 12 months, most likely where a firm obtained rivals' proposals from a public official.

Japan's Supreme Court ruled on 28 September, in its first decision on the point, that a scored proposal contest can count as legal "bidding". It upheld the conviction of Norihiro Niiyama, a former Ain Pharmacies executive who obtained rival pharmacies' proposals from a Sapporo hospital official. As qualitative procurement contests are common across Japanese healthcare, construction and local government work, the precedent gives prosecutors a new tool to revisit cases that hinged on the narrower definition of bidding. Ain Pharmacies, Dentsu, Hakuhodo and Cerespo, which all won scored contracts, now face the sharpest scrutiny.