Japan: cellphone stock trading rakes in billions of value

Business Week says cellphones played an important role in Japan's recent "three-day sell-off, which had dragged the Nikkei index down 7% by Jan. 18 and strained the Tokyo Stock Exchange's trading system to the breaking point." How? Well, apparently thousands of amateur Japanese investors panicked on the stock news and immediately took their cellphones to "shed shares as fast as the professional brokerage traders." It turns out that stock trading via cell phones is getting very popular among ordinary investors in Japan, bringing billions in value of transactions.

In November, the value of trades made via mobile phones by brokers Matsui Securities, E*Trade Securities, and Monex -- three of Japan's major online brokers -- hit 1 trillion yen ($8.7 billion) for the first time, a rise of 90% over the year before.

Once again, the example of cellphone trading proves the point that mobile Internet has more appeal to Japanese than the fixed-line connection.

Why is wireless becoming the way to go for Japan's market junkies in Japan? Much of the answer lies in the way the country's mobile industry evolved in the 1990s. Back then, pricey per-minute charges over regular phone lines discouraged consumers from getting Internet access at home. Many Japanese simply found it cheaper to sign up for Web-enabled cell phones instead, which had an added benefit for city dwellers who spend an average of two hours daily commuting to and from work.