TL;DR
- The Epic Games Store has launched on iPhone in Japan following the Mobile Software Competition Act enacted in December 2025, but launches exclusively with Epic's own titles including Fortnite and Rocket League Sideswipe due to Apple's 5% Core Technology Commission fee deterring other developers.
- Apple requires a nine-step installation process for third-party app stores in Japan, which Epic is challenging as anticompetitive alongside the fee structure, with regulators being urged to enforce the law and prohibit Apple's practices.
Epic Games has its store on Japanese iPhones. It just doesn't have anyone else's apps in it yet.
The Epic Games Store launched in Japan under the Mobile Software Competition Act, which like Europe's Digital Markets Act requires Apple to support alternative app stores and payment options. The regulatory opening exists. What Apple has done with that opening is the problem.
Why Other Developers Aren't There
Apple's response to third-party store requirements in Japan includes a 5% Core Technology Commission on apps distributed through competing stores, plus requirements for developers to track and report transactions. Epic described the combined effect plainly: "This creates confusion and costs that deter developers from launching on competing app stores. As a result, we are not launching with apps from other developers on the Store."
That's an honest description of a compliance that undermines the law's intent. Japan passed legislation requiring alternative store support. Apple built a fee and reporting structure that makes those alternative stores commercially unattractive to developers. The letter of the law is met. The spirit isn't.
A 5% commission added to whatever margin a developer was already working with on their own platform is a meaningful cost. Combined with transaction reporting requirements, the friction adds up to developers asking whether the Japan alternative store audience is worth the overhead. Many are apparently concluding it isn't.
The Nine-Step Installation Problem
Apple also requires nine steps to install third-party app stores in Japan. Nine. Epic's EU comparison is instructive. When the European store launched, Apple initially required 15 steps. Regulatory pressure reduced that to six, which produced a 60% decrease in player drop-off during installation.
The correlation is obvious. More steps means more users abandoning the process. Epic is urging Japan's Fair Trade Commission to address this specifically, calling on the regulator to "rigorously enforce the law and prohibit Apple from imposing illegal fees and friction that harm consumers and competition."
The Bigger Epic vs Apple Picture
This is five years into a battle that started when Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store in 2020 for bypassing platform fees. Since then, Epic has won regulatory openings in Europe and the US, with a US district court ruling prohibiting Apple from collecting fees on external purchases leading to Fortnite's iOS return stateside.
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