Tokyo Stock Exchange to Make Room For Foreign ETFs

In the interest of increasing the number of exchange-traded funds available in Japan and preparing itself to go public, the Tokyo Stock Exchange plans to change its rules to allow non-Japanese ETFs to be listed, according to The Nikkei Report.   Domestic ETFs in Japan, by law, can use only the Nikkei Stock Average and Topix as the indexes on which to base the funds. As a result, when it comes to ETFs, investors on the Tokyo Exchange have only 11 choices.   The rules on foreign ETFs are expected to be far less restrictive. For example, the Tokyo Exchange expects the Financial Services Agency to allow ETFs based on commodities indexes.   The Tokyo Exchange is aiming to make ETFs the core product of its investment offerings before going public, an event tentatively slated for 2009.   The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.