The Tokyo Stock Exchange share splits push moved into a new phase on Tuesday, when the exchange formally wrote to around 270 listed companies asking them to make their shares cheaper for ordinary investors to buy.
The letter was signed by TSE President Ryusuke Yokoyama, who has led the exchange since April 2023. It came alongside the launch of a new Working Group on Further Promotion of Small-Size Investments, which will hold its first meetings from October.
Why Japanese Stocks Can Be Expensive to Buy
The root of the problem is a structural one. Shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) trade only in blocks of 100, meaning the cost of one lot equals the share price multiplied by 100. Any company whose share price is above ¥5,000 automatically has a minimum entry cost above ¥500,000, roughly $3,050 at current exchange rates.
Under TSE listing rules, companies whose lot price exceeds ¥500,000 are obliged to disclose their policy on reducing it, according to the JPX Study Group on Small-Size Investments report. This is a disclosure obligation, not merely a suggestion.
TSE’s own April 2025 research showed the mean investment unit for Prime Market stocks was ¥258,087, with a median of ¥198,100 and a highest of ¥5,848,000. For Standard Market stocks the mean was ¥140,550. By comparison, the average cost of a single lot of an S&P 500 constituent was roughly ¥32,000, a gap that retail investors looking at Japan’s market cannot easily ignore.
Progress on Tokyo Stock Exchange Share Splits Since 2022
The pressure has been building since TSE made a similar request in October 2022. Since then, 762 companies have resolved to split their shares. Of the 276 that completed splits in the 12 months to 30 June, around 70% were targeting a lot price in the ¥100,000s, the material attached to Tuesday’s letter shows. Before those splits, 45% of that group had lot prices at ¥500,000 or above. Afterwards, only 2% did.
NTT’s 25-for-1 split in July 2023 remains the largest since the 2022 request. It took that company’s lot price from ¥418,900 to roughly ¥16,800, putting it within reach of investors with modest sums.
Sixty-nine companies still had lot prices above ¥1 million (around $6,100) on 30 June. Kioxia Holdings sat at the top at ¥8.97 million (about $54,700). Fast Retailing, Disco and Keyence were also in that group.
Some are already acting. Tokyo Electron, priced at ¥7.72 million a lot, resolved at a board meeting on 29 May 2026 to implement a 1-for-5 stock split effective 1 October 2026, with a record date of 30 September 2026. The company also confirmed its concurrent share repurchase programme will be adjusted to reflect the split, with the buyback ceiling revised to up to 37.5 million shares. Organo is planning the same 5-for-1 ratio on the same day. Furukawa Electric completed a 10-for-1 split with effect from 1 July.
The Retail Base Behind the Demand
The study group’s founding brief describes its target constituency as retail investors, mainly younger investors, who want to buy individual stocks starting from smaller amounts. Rakuten Securities passed 14 million accounts in April, partly driven by openings under Japan’s tax-free NISA programme (a savings wrapper that exempts investment returns from tax, similar in broad concept to a UK ISA). Interactive Brokers launched NISA accounts through its Japanese unit in mid-2025.
Domestic brokers have been working around the lot-size rule for years. Monex Securities offers single-share dealing through its One Kabu service. SBI Securities builds the option into standard order flow. Rakuten Securities runs an odd-lot service called Kabu Mini and said in January 2025 that it was the only broker among the five largest online firms to offer a limit-order function for those trades.
Domestic equity commissions in Japan went to zero years ago, so brokers have competed on foreign stocks and digital assets instead. Rakuten extended its US equity trading day to 16 hours in June.
What the Working Group Will Look At Next
Tuesday’s announcement sat alongside a March 2026 TSE status update confirming the exchange has been implementing the action plan from its April 2025 report and will continue updating initiatives based on feedback from companies and investors.
The new working group’s agenda covers two areas: reviewing progress on lot-price reductions so far, and finding ways to make small-size investing easier going forward, including cutting the administrative burden on issuers such as reducing shareholder mailings. Trading participants, institutional investors, transfer agents and listed companies will sit on the group, with regulators and industry associations as observers.
TSE has tied the whole effort to the Japanese government’s push to establish Japan as an international asset management hub. The exchange’s own annual report places Yokoyama at the centre of that agenda. The test of how seriously the remaining 69 high-cost companies take Tuesday’s letter will come when the working group publishes its findings, most likely in early 2027.
