Do Son 
Under the impending enactment of Japan’s Mobile Application Competition Act, Apple’s long-standing policy requiring all iOS browsers to be built exclusively on its WebKit engine may soon face significant change. Scheduled for full implementation by the end of 2025, the new regulation will permit third-party browsers on iOS in Japan to employ alternative rendering engines—such as Blink, used by Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera, or Gecko, used by Firefox.
This move mirrors the direction of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which last year compelled Apple to allow third-party browsers in Europe to use their own engines.
However, Japan’s new legislation is widely regarded as even more stringent. In addition to prohibiting platform owners from barring developers from adopting alternative browser cores, it explicitly forbids Apple from imposing unreasonable technical restrictions on non-WebKit browsers.
According to the non-profit organization Open Web Advocacy, this will ensure that third-party browsers have a genuinely viable path to growth in Japan, preventing the change from becoming a mere token gesture. Under the law, Apple must not only allow browsers built on non-WebKit engines to be listed on the App Store but must also include a default browser selection screen during the initial iPhone setup, enabling users to choose alternatives to Safari from the outset.
The change will affect not only standalone browser apps but also in-app browsers—embedded web viewers within social media platforms, shopping apps, and other services. Developers will be free to adopt engines like Blink or Gecko, integrating more advanced features, performance optimizations, and consistent cross-platform experiences.
Apple has yet to comment on how the new Japanese regulations will impact its iOS ecosystem. Nonetheless, industry observers expect the move to open new opportunities for Google, Mozilla, Microsoft, and other browser vendors, allowing them to offer the same full-featured capabilities on iOS that they do on Android and desktop, rather than the pared-down versions constrained by WebKit.
For users, this could translate into faster JavaScript execution, better web compatibility, and access to more advanced functionalities such as extension support. At the same time, heightened competition in the market may drive continuous improvements to Safari itself.
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