The Financial Futures Association of Japan (FFAJ) reported on Monday the total trading volume of retail forex in Japan amounted to JPY 5.58 quadrillion in 2015, which is a significant increase of 38.4% compared to the previous year. The country’s retail currency binary options trading had a volume of JPY 574.7 billion in 2015, down by 29% from the previous year.
In December 2015 alone, the country’s trading over-the-counter (OTC) retail margin forex volume grew by 18% on the month to nearly JPY 355 trillion, while the trading volume of on-excnage forex traded on the Tokyo Financial exchange (TFX) jumped by a monthly 49.7% to nearly JPY 3.9 trillion. 
Open positions on the Japanese retail forex market exceeded JPY 7.0 trillion in total in December, posting a drop of more than 3% over the month. Long open positions had a balance of nearly JPY 5.4 trillion at the end of last month and short positions were JPY 1.65 trillion, while a month earlier they were JPY 4.8 trillion and JPY 2.4 trillion, respectively.
On the retail OTC forex binary options market, the trading volume jumped by a monthly 26% to JPY 48.1 billion in December. The USD/JPY was the most traded currency pair last month in Japan, generating a trading volume of JPY 26.4 billion. Next in line were GBP/JPY with a trading volume of JPY 7.4 billion in December, EUR/USD and EUR/JPY, which had trading volumes of JPY 7.1 billion and JPY 5.7 billion, respectively. 
OTC retail forex margin trading operators in Japan numbered 53 at the end of December, while OTC forex binary options brokers were 8 in total – GMO Click Securities, Traders Securities, IG Securities, FX PRIME by GMO, JFX, YJ FX, Hirose FX, and FX Trade Financial.
Earlier this month, Japanese forex broker Monex Group said it trading volume from global operations increased 30.5% over the month to $29.5 billion in December, while the trading volume of Gaitame, another Japanese forex broker, grew by a monthly 27.5% to JPY 23 trillion. Also, GMO Click Holdings has said its subsidiaries GMO CLICK Securities and FX PRIME by GMO posted for December a monthly increase in their over-the-counter (OTC) forex trading volumes to nearly JPY 77.5 trillion and JPY 6.4 trillion, respectively.
The Japanese forex market is among the most active and prospering ones worldwide.
Source: FFAJ
