Business Standard

Here's why Japan boasts the world's most powerful force of retail traders

About 85 per cent of traders are men, mostly in their 30s, 40s and 50s, according to estimates from Gaitame

Japan economy, Japan yen, yen, japan currency
Premium

A Japan Yen note is seen in this illustration photo taken | Photo: Reuters

Chikafumi Hodo & Daisuke Sakai | Bloomberg
Popular tales of “Mrs Watanabe” -- the canny Tokyo housewife who dabbles in currency trading in between school runs and shopping -- barely begin to tell the story of Japan’s retail traders in the foreign exchange market.

With almost 800,000 active forex accounts, Japan boasts the world’s most powerful force of retail traders. It has doubled in size in little more than a decade and spurred some of the most dramatic price moves of recent times, including the January “flash crash” that hammered the dollar and sent the yen soaring.

Contrary to the enchanting notion of “Mrs Watanabe,” most of the traders

What you get on BS Premium?

  • Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app.
  • Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them.
  • Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006.
  • Preferential invites to Business Standard events.
  • Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more.
VIEW ALL FAQs

Need More Information - write to us at assist@bsmail.in