Japanese media report that the Tokyo government has decided to formally impose antidumping tariffs on certain steel imports from South Korea and China over the next five years.

The tariffs have been levied on a tentative basis until now.

According to NHK and the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, the Japanese government believes that carbon steel parts used in making factory pipes were imported from the two countries at unfairly low prices, inflicting damage on Japanese firms.

Japan has slapped tariffs of as much as over 69 percent on steel imports from South Korea and China since December in accordance with regulations by the World Trade Organization, claiming the export prices were unjustly low.