This essay argues that the Tokyo Stock Exchange failed its fundamental duty by not investigating who drove the yen surge and massive short-selling during the crash, contrasting this with China’s immediate crackdown during the Shanghai collapse.

February 14, 2016

I immediately received a call from the company president mentioned earlier.
“I will call the Tokyo Stock Exchange myself. They must reveal who continued short-selling and make it clear to the Japanese people and to the world.”
His voice was filled with rage.

It was a natural anger and a perfectly reasonable demand.

Have the people at the Tokyo Stock Exchange forgotten that they themselves are Japanese citizens?

For whom, and for what purpose, does the Tokyo Stock Exchange exist?
First and foremost, it should exist for the development of Japan and the companies Japan proudly presents to the world.

In other words, it exists for the Japanese people.
By extension, it should exist for the peace and development of the world and its people.

It should not exist to drive Japan into the abyss, spread anxiety across the world, and create an extremely unstable global environment.

You should have launched an investigation immediately.

Look at the Chinese government.
When the Shanghai market collapsed last summer, it immediately punished the companies and individuals who had engaged in short-selling.

China has, since the end of the war, been an unquestioned permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, holding veto power over decisions related to world peace.

Japan is not even a permanent member.
Tokyo Stock Exchange, you should learn from China’s actions.

You should also take your cue from today’s Nikkei newspaper, which treated Japan’s crash and China’s crash as equivalent and ran a massive front-page headline—an approach that is, in effect, aligned with China.

Before the anger of Japanese citizens overwhelms you, it is your minimum duty as the Tokyo Stock Exchange—an institution belonging to Japan—to clarify who continued driving the yen higher through currency futures and who relentlessly shorted Nikkei futures during this crash.

If you are an organization that, like the Asahi Shimbun, does not consider itself Japanese; that opposes the Abe administration; that seeks its downfall at any cost; that rejects preparations against China’s military expansion; that shouts “absolute opposition to security legislation,” then you should declare so openly.

If not, then you must immediately reveal to the Japanese people and to the world who continued the short-selling and who drove the yen to such extreme appreciation through currency futures.

And you must ensure that such acts—committed by people who are the embodiment of evil, who brazenly seized enormous assets from Japanese citizens and people around the world while destabilizing the global economy—are never allowed to happen again.

Preventing such abuses is a critically important role in guarding against the pitfalls of capitalism.

Those working at the Tokyo Stock Exchange must declare this responsibility to Japan and to the world.

This essay continues.