Number of Individual Shareholders Rises to Record 69.8 Million in Japan

A Japan Exchange Group survey on share ownership in fiscal 2022 found that the number of non-unique individual shareholders hit a record 69.8 million in March 2023, up 5.2 million from the year before.

The total number of individual shareholders increased for the ninth consecutive year. This active market participation of individuals takes place against the backdrop of rising Japanese stock prices.

The survey covers 3,927 companies listed on Japan’s four stock exchanges. For the purposes of this survey, the individual shareholder total is calculated by adding the number of shareholders of all four exchanges. In other words, if a single individual shareholder owns shares in 10 different companies, he or she will be counted as 10 individual shareholders.

In fiscal 2022, the decrease in individual shareholders resulting from delisted companies totaled 490,000, while the number of individual shareholders that increased from newly listed companies and from companies that implemented stock splits totaled 540,000 and 750,000, respectively, and there was a rise of 4.4 million stockholders in other companies.

The total number of shareholders increased year on year by 5.23 million to 71.4 million. Individual shareholders accounted for 97.8% of this total, with the remainder consisting of enterprise corporations (1.2%), foreign corporations (0.8%), and securities companies (0.1%). The number of individual shareholders has continued to increase at an annual rate of 5 to 8% after surpassing the 50-million mark in fiscal 2017.

By shareholder type, ¥131.2 trillion of shares were held by individuals or noncorporate entities, which was a year-on-year increase of over ¥10 trillion, while ¥224.2 trillion were held by foreign corporations, ¥219.9 trillion by financial institutions (including trust banks and life insurance companies), and ¥145.6 trillion by enterprise corporations. Stocks held by individuals or noncorporate entities accounted for 17.6% of all shares, marking a year-on-year increase of one percentage point, while shares held by foreign corporations rose for the third consecutive year, exceeding 30% of the total.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: The Tokyo Stock Exchange in Chūō, Tokyo, in May 2023. © Jiji.)