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Commodities exchanges see need for online presence
Although the commodities future exchange originated in Japan, total trading among its exchanges last year fell 22 percent to 113.1 million contracts last year,   while the New York Mercantile Exchange saw trading jump 25 percent to 204.6 million contracts  after gaining the right to accept Internet trades from Japan in 2004.

Trading on the Chicago Board of Trade grow 12 percent to 674 million contracts last year.  Chicago began after-hours electronic trading in 1994 and sees two-thirds of its trades being made electronically.

So far, the Tokyo Commodity Exchange is the only one of Japan’s six commodities exchanges that accepts online trades.  None of the exchanges offer after-hours trades, the convenience of which draws individual and overseas investors.

The decline in trading volume in Japan is leading its commodities exchanges to consider moving online.  This turning point in Japan's commodities exchanges presents U.S. companies with significant opportunity for growth by helping the commodities exchanges and other areas of Japan's financial sector get make their services available online. 

Tokyo Stock Exchange improves IT infrastructure
In January, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) hired its first chief information officer, Yoshinori Suzuki, who formerly served as CEO of the bank payment system NTT Data Force.  In February, the TSE announced plans to spend 3.2 billion yen (about $29 million) to upgrade its trading system. 

Then in May, the TSE announced it had increased its trading capacity from 9 million to 12 million and plans to further increase that number to 14 million by the end of this year.  The Exchange plans to revamp the entire trading system by 2009.