On May 20, FSA has announced on its website that it is seeking public comments on a proposed revision of Cabinet Orders related to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA). The announcement is available in Japanese only and public comments should be submitted by June 21. This revision proposal comes after FIA Japan submitted a Letter to FSA in April 2021 requesting clarification of the law with regards to commodity derivatives products regulated under FIEA, following the migration of some of the TOCOM products onto OSE in July last year. This Letter was prepared by the FIAJ Commodity Committee and its contents were approved by the FIAJ Board (see PDF English translation below).
The FSA proposal in effect matches the interpretation of the law by METI under the Commodity Derivatives Act (CDA), allowing foreign brokers in certain jurisdictions to broker trades from Japanese customers for derivatives products listed on a Japanese exchange, without requiring a license in Japan. The METI decision at the time also came after the issue was raised by FIA Japan.
FIA Japan will continue to strive towards suggesting improvements/clarification of the legal framework to the regulators, to help develop the Japanese markets for the benefit of the industry as a whole. Please click here to access the FSA public comment webpage (Japanese).