A Brief History Of The Japanese Stock Exchange

Japan, the land of rising sun, is an island country. Its landscape is dotted with volcanoes and mountains. This far eastern country comes in Asia, and has a very strong economy. The Japanese Stock Exchange of Japan is considered among the best stock exchanges of the world.

Japan has basically five stock exchanges. They are: Nagoya Stock Exchange (NSE), Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE), Tokyo International Financial Futures Exchange (TIFFE), Tokyo Grain Exchange (TGE), and Tokyo stock Exchange (TSE). Out of these five stock exchanges, three are located in Tokyo, the capital city of Japan.

All these stock exchanges are big. Among them, Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is the biggest. TSE is also the most famous stock exchange. As a matter of fact, this stock exchange is rated as the second largest stock exchange, next to only New York Stock exchange..

The TSE has a strong list of 2271 domestic companies and 31 foreign companies that are allowed to do business there. These companies together take the total market capitalization of TSE to five trillion USD which is a landmark in itself. It also suggests how big and significant this stock exchange is.

The governing body of Tokyo Stock Exchange consists of eight Executive Officers, four Auditors and Nine Directors. This governing body is called Kabushiki Kaisha. The headquarters of TSE is located at Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan. The operating hours of TSE is between 9 am and 11 am in the morning, and 12.30 pm and 3 pm in the afternoon.

The TSE was established in 1878 under the direction of the then Finance Minister Okuma Shigenobu, and an advocate Shibusawa Eiichi. After its creation, it ran smoothly for many years. In the year 1943, in a historical move, the Tokyo Stock Exchange was merged with the ten other stock exchanges located in the major cities of Japan. This combined stock exchange was called Japanese Stock Exchange.

But this combined exchange, Japanese Stock Exchange, could not last for long. The World War II started, and Japan was bombed badly. Its cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by nuclear bombs. . This had a crippling effect on the country. The economy got affected badly, and the Japanese Stock Exchange was shut, though it was later reorganized.

The TSE is in an alliance with the London Stock Exchange for jointly developing the trade products, and sharing the latest available technology. This has been the greatest breakthrough for the TSE in todays fiercely competitive world.

As one can see, Japanese Stock Exchange was the outcome of the combination of ten different stock exchanges, but it could not function because of the outbreak of the Second World War.