Japan Sees Biggest Jump on Record in Individual Shareholdings

The number of individual shareholdings in Japan surged 12% to a fresh record of 83.6 million last fiscal year as the country’s tax-free NISA savings program expanded and people were able to invest smaller amounts of money.

That’s an increase of 9.14 million from the previous year, according to an annual share ownership survey by Japan Exchange Group Inc., or JPX, which runs the country’s major bourses. It’s also the biggest jump in the number of individual holdings since it started compiling the data in 1949.