.jpg)
Warmest greetings for the New Year.
As we head into 2008, I would like to wish everybody health and further prosperity in the future.
Last year, the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis cast a long shadow on securities markets in many countries around the world. However, out of the 30 OECD member countries, only a handful of those other than Japan had stock markets that grew at a more sluggish pace than the previous year. In light of the fact that recent corporate performance in Japan is not that bad compared to other countries, the implication is that our country is losing its appeal as a “place for investment” during a time when a huge amount of petrodollars and other surplus funds are circulating all over the world.
In fact, the position of our market in the world and even in Asia is not necessarily rock-solid. We have to admit that Japan lags not only in the financial sector, but that we are also seriously behind Singapore, China, and Korea in the volume of container and cargo transportation at ports and airports – infrastructural elements critical for overseas commerce. This is a result of the promotional measures taken by the government in each of these countries as part of their national strategy. Japan must not repeat the same mistakes in our securities markets, which provide the hub for capital transactions; it is vital to present a concrete path for enhancing the attractiveness of our securities market as soon as possible.
At the Tokyo Stock Exchange group, the self-regulatory corporation set up last year is singularly committed to further enhancing the quality of the TSE market. On the other hand, the market operating company will strive to quickly remedy the current situation of investors having access to only a limited range of financial instruments by offering a variety of financial instruments such as ETFs and derivatives which track the movement of stock indices, commodity indices and commodity prices. Through these efforts, we hope that our market will be utilized by even more investors.
Furthermore, we will create a new market for professional investors whose concept is completely different from that of the existing market for emerging companies. With this market, we hope to aid the growth of such companies in Japan and other Asian countries through our fundamental role as a risk capital market supplying funds to these companies for their
activities. As a result, investors will be able to more easily tailor their portfolios according to their individual risk tolerance. It is our sincere wish that this will create a virtuous cycle in which liquidity in the TSE market will increase and we will gain international recognition as a place where people want to invest.
Competition among exchanges taking place on a global scale is, to put it precisely, competition in ingenuity in pursuit of national wealth. In this context, we consider it significant that the Financial System Council and the Industrial Structural Council have recently published reports on strengthening the competitiveness of the financial and capital markets of our country. We are committed to improving the attractiveness of the TSE market in collaboration with all concerned parties by implementing as many measures proposed in the reports as possible.
We earnestly ask for your continued support and cooperation in this endeavor.
January 4, 2008
Atsushi Saito
President & CEO
Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, Inc.
