Tokyo bourse outage finds scant interest overseas

Crash matters little to foreign money fleeing market beset with zombie companies

20201007 TSE

The Tokyo Stock Exchange halted all trading for an entire day due to a system glitch on Oct. 1. © Reuters

MAKOTO KAJIWARA, Nikkei commentator

TOKYO -- The Tokyo Stock Exchange halted trading of all listed shares for the whole day due to a system glitch on Oct. 1, but the world showed little interest. The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times initially reported the news only on inside pages. In South Korea, most major newspapers didn't even cover the incident.

The Tokyo bourse was once ridiculed as the Tokyo "Stop" Exchange by foreign media, when it was forced to shut down trading in 2006 after a surge in sell orders triggered by an investigation into internet company Livedoor overloaded its computer system. And while the joke was crude, it at least showed investors cared.

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