Japan’s expanded NISA allows ¥3.6 million a year (¥18 million lifetime) of investing exempt from Japanese tax on eligible gains — yet in JPX weekly data individuals net sold ¥0.05 trillion while foreigners net bought ¥0.73 trillion (week of Sep 7–11, 2026). Here is what NISA money actually buys, why much of it leaves Japan entirely, and how to read the retail line in the weekly investor-type tables.
Tokyo ward-area CPI is released at 8:30 a.m. JST in the final week of each month — covering that same month — roughly three to four weeks before Japan’s nationwide CPI. Here is why the gap exists, how closely Tokyo tracks the national print, and how BoJ-watchers and JGB markets read the number first.
Japan’s chip-equipment cycle runs on five public gauges: SEAJ monthly billings read as a three-month average year on year, global semiconductor sales, customer capex guidance, order backlogs, and inventory days. Here is the reading order, the confirmation rules that separate a real turn from noise, and how to cross-check with JPX short-sale and Japan Securities Finance margin data.
Tokyo Stock Exchange opening and closing prices come from itayose call auctions that suspend time priority and cross all orders at a single price; everything in between trades zaraba, under strict price-then-time priority. Here is how both engines work, why special quotes and daily price limits can leave a marketable order unfilled, and how the monthly SQ settlement is built from each constituent’s initial price on settlement day.
For a September 30 record date under Japan’s T+2 settlement, the last day to buy with dividend rights is September 28 and the ex-dividend day (kenri-ochi) is September 29 — the morning thousands of stocks open lower at once and the Nikkei 225 carries a calculable dividend drag that has nothing to do with sentiment. Here is how to count the dates, estimate the drop, and avoid misreading it.
Roughly two-thirds of listed Japanese companies close their books on March 31 and report in four clustered kessan waves, typically publishing on TDnet around the 15:30 cash close. The number that moves the stock is usually the company’s own full-year guidance — and its mid-year revisions — not the reported quarter.
U.S. CPI lands at 21:30 JST (22:30 in winter), midway through Osaka’s 17:00–6:00 night session for Nikkei 225 futures. The night-session close is the key overnight anchor for where Tokyo’s 9:00 cash open will print — refined by the live futures level once Osaka’s day session resumes at 8:45. Here is the full transmission chain, release clock, and how to read the gap.
The BoJ raises rates not by draining reserves but by paying more on them: lift the rate on banks’ excess reserves and the overnight call rate follows almost mechanically. Here is the full plumbing — call market, TIBOR, lending rates, JGB yields, equities — with a step-by-step method for reading the September 2026 curve.
Nikkei 225 futures trade nearly 24 hours across Osaka, SGX, and CME, and Tokyo’s 9:00 cash open typically converges toward the basis-adjusted overnight futures level. How each venue hands off to the next, how to compute fair-value basis from short-term yen funding, and why the quarterly roll is not the same as SQ.
Japan’s Services PPI (SPPI) lands around the 25th–26th of each month at 8:50 a.m. Tokyo time on the Bank of Japan’s website, and it is the BoJ’s cleanest read on wage-driven ‘homegrown’ inflation. Here is what it measures versus CPI and the goods PPI, which labor-intensive components to watch, and how JGB yields, the yen, and bank stocks typically react to a beat or miss.