Japanese financial markets have grown dramatically and changed substantively in recent years. By surveying institutional changes and studying recent academic analyses, Japanese Capital Markets provides the first relatively non-technical and comprehensive introduction to the new developments in capital and other related markets in Japan.

The book is divided into six parts: International Aspects of Japanese Capital Markets; The Framework of Capital Markets; Thte Bond Market; The Equity Market; Futures, Money and Foreign-Exchange Markets; and Investment Trusts and Securities Financing. The editor and contributors have focused primarily on the institutional details of the various markets (including stock markets, bond markets, and futures and options markets). However, there are also chapters on theoretical issues, legal and regulatory issues, and recent policy changes and developments including the foreign-exchange market, securities financing and securities market regulation.

The contributors include academics and practitioners from the US, Japan and Europe. They are all recognized experts on the Japanese financial system and they have been commissioned to write on their respective fields of expertise with include economics, finance, banking and law. The book is rich in both institutional and analystical information, some of which has not previously been made available in English. The contributors have also provided new information obtained either from original research or from operational experience.

Shinji Takagi is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Osaka and holds a joint appointment as a senior economist at the Institute of Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Japanese Ministry of Finance. He gained his PhD in economics at the University of Rochester and he has previously help positions at the Research Department of the Internaitonal Monetary fund and at the Bank of Japan Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies. He has published widely on international monetary economics and Japanese financial markets in many international journals.