Japan Forex Trading Market

Written by Naylyan Nazifova

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Naylyan Nazifova

Naylyan Nazifova is a Financial Research and Platform Testing Analyst at BestBrokers.com, where she reviews and tests online brokers across forex, stocks, investing and personal finance. Her experience in online trading content and broker analysis helps readers understand how platforms perform in practice, including their trading tools, fees, ease of use and suitability for different types of investors.

, | Updated: July 24, 2026

Japan is among the largest economies in the world, with a gross domestic product amounting to $4.44 trillion in 2025, according to the latest data by the World Bank. Unsurprisingly, the country ranks among the global market’s top forex hubs, with Bank for International Settlements data placing its April 2025 aggregate turnover at $440.2 billion. On an international scale, the Japanese yen is only behind the dollar and the euro in terms of trading activity, and the currency has been popular among fans of the carry trade the world over.

This popularity is reflected locally: USD/JPY continues to be Japan’s most actively traded currency pair, largely propelled by carry trade transactions. Individuals who make use of carry trading borrow a currency with a low interest rate and exchange it for a currency with a high interest rate to take advantage of the difference between the two.

Japan’s foreign exchange market is regulated by the Financial Services Agency (FSA), which means that any company seeking to operate in the country and appeal to Japanese traders needs to make sure that it has a valid FSA license. The Bank of Japan (BOJ), as an agent of the Ministry of Finance, is responsible for executing monetary policies and conducting foreign exchange market interventions to control the yen’s value.

For those eager to learn more about forex trading in Japan, this publication explores the various statistics that shape the Japanese forex market.

History of Forex Trading in Japan

The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s roots date back to 1878, and Japan’s economy has had its ups and downs since its establishment. Of particular note was the so-called Lost Decade, which lasted between 1991 and 2000. It is referred to as such due to being a period of notable recession.

However, the Lost Decade is also characterized by a curious social phenomenon that shaped the global forex audience’s perception of forex trading in Japan. We are referring to Mrs. Watanabe, a term that represents the many Japanese housewives who are believed to have found great success as forex traders in the 1990s and early 2000s. Over the years, the term also gained popularity as a way to refer to retail Japanese traders as a whole.

The Financial Services Agency (FSA), Japan’s financial regulator, was established in the year 2000 when the Financial Supervisory Agency and the Financial System Planning Bureau were merged into a single supervisory body.

Another key entity that plays a crucial role in Japan’s FX history is the Bank of Japan (BOJ), which was founded in 1882. The BOJ has the authority to intervene in the forex exchange market when deemed necessary, and as described by the BOJ itself, this is done with the aim of stabilization. However, the BOJ has been known to be relatively averse to taking drastic measures. This hesitation is one of the factors that forex enthusiasts in Japan have to keep in mind when it comes to how they approach trading.

Since the year 2000, intervention has been done only around a dozen times. The longest pause lasted from 2011, when a strengthening yen threatened to impede Japan’s economic recovery efforts following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, to 2022, when estimates pointed to the BOJ having spent trillions to prop up the yen amid a price surge of the dollar. The latter was never officially confirmed, however. In July 2024, the JPY was supported with 5.53 trillion yen ($36.8 billion) with the intention of strengthening the currency.

The year 2024 also saw the BOJ put an end to the negative rates that used to be a core aspect of its monetary policy. This marked a historic shift as Japan became the last major economy to abandon negative rates, raising the short-term interest rate target from -0.1% to a range of 0% to 0.1% in March 2024, the first such increase since 2007. Moreover, the country’s economy is finally seeing an increase in inflation after a long period of persistent deflation.

The latest FX intervention occurred between April 28 and May 27, 2026, when the BOJ sold 11.74 trillion yen (equivalent to roughly $74 billion). While this temporarily reduced the USD/JPY exchange rate from over 160 yen to 156 yen, the exchange rate has since gone up. As of July 24, 2026, the USD/JPY is trading at nearly 164 yen, and it has not dropped below the 160 threshold since early June.

Japanese FX traders typically keep track of the Tankan survey, which has been issued by the BOJ on a quarterly basis since 1974. It gives traders a clear overview of how Japanese businesses are performing.

Japan Forex Market Size

The global FX market has long been considered to be the most prominent market globally, and the data certainly backs this up. As revealed by the Triennial Central Bank Survey 2025, the global FX market achieved daily transactions of $9.5 trillion in April 2025, a 27.35% increase compared to $7.5 trillion in 2022. Japan was among the five jurisdictions that represented the vast majority of trades, along with the UK, the US, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Of the five, Japan’s OTC foreign exchange turnover represented 4.6% ($440.2 billion) of all global trading, securing the country the fifth spot in terms of global forex trading volume.

Aggregate Turnover

The Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market Committee (TFEMC) has been carrying out annual surveys between 2006 and 2012, and bi-annual surveys from 2013 onward, examining the total value of transactions in Japan’s foreign exchange market, commonly referred to as ‘Turnover Survey of the Tokyo FX Market’. The most recent survey published by the TFEMC covers the average daily turnover between April 2022 and October 2025, showcasing notable upswings and downswings.

As shown, the total trading revenue rose in April 2025 only to decline by 4.78% in October of the same year. The figures below represent the daily averages in billions of USD. The numbers in brackets correspond to each category’s share of the total turnover. The latest published data indicates a 10.2% year-over-year increase from $399.2 billion in October 2024 to $440 billion in the same month a year later.

The Japanese market has exhibited positive tendencies over the past decade, showcasing a 14.85% increase in total average daily turnover between October 2015 ($383.1 billion) and October 2025 ($440 billion).

*Daily averages in billions of USD, percentage. **Due to differences in survey methodology, there may be slight discrepancies in the numbers reported by the Bank of Japan to BIS and those posted by the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market Committee.

The above also shows that Japanese traders tend to favor FX swap transactions over all other types, as they typically rank first in terms of overall market share (60.6% in October 2025). Currency swaps, on the other hand, tend to rank last, with a meager 1.3% of the total turnover during this period.

Japan Forex Trading Demographics

While Mrs. Watanabe has made headlines in the global forex sphere, it should be noted that women still account for the smaller percentage of FX traders in Japan compared to men. Back in the 2010s, it was believed that women made up roughly 25% of retail traders in the country, as seen in a 2013 publication by TIME, which included commentary by experts like Kazuhiro Koike and Vito Henjoto.

Since then, data has suggested that Japanese women’s interest in foreign exchange trading has waned to a certain extent, with notable figures being those of the Gaitame.com Research Institute. Gaitame.com released estimates in 2019, which showed a distribution of 85% (men) and 15% (women). The institute also noted that, in terms of age, the vast majority of forex traders in the country were over 30 in 2019, with some being in their 40s or 50s.

Local vs Cross-Border Transactions

Another piece of data that the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market Committee (TFEMC) focuses on in its surveys pertains to how many transactions on the Japanese forex market are made locally and how many are cross-border. On average, cross-border transactions typically make up over 50% of all transactions, and this trend has been consistent in recent years.

This was again the case in October 2025, when cross-border transactions posted an average daily volume of $255.5 billion, accounting for over 58.05% of the total market turnover. The following data represents the daily averages in billions of USD, with shares of total transactions listed in brackets.

*Daily averages in billions of USD, percentage.

Japanese Yen vs Other Currencies

According to data from the Bank for International Settlements, in 2025, the Japanese yen was the third most traded currency on a global scale, with 16.91% of trades involving the yen. The euro was second at 28.54%, while the US dollar remained on top with a percentage of 89.1%.

We can see that the above ranking was mirrored in the International Monetary Fund’s data on the world’s allocated reserves, broken down by currencies. In 2026, the Q1 reserves in Japanese yen accounted for 5.44% of the total currency reserves globally, as shown in data gathered by the International Monetary Fund. In contrast, the currency with the largest share of allocated reserves was the US dollar (57.13%), while the euro (20.03%) was in second place.

The figures show that the JPY’s and USD’s shares have suffered a slight decline: The yen is down 0.32 percentage points from the Q1 2024 data (5.57%), while the greenback’s share dropped by 1.25 percentage points from 58.38%

The US dollar’s prominence is notable in Japan as well. As shown in the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market Committee’s turnover survey from October 2025, the yen was second to the USD in terms of total turnover, although it did manage to overtake the US dollar when it came to certain transaction types. In terms of spot trading, they were almost identical, with the JPY having a turnover of $90.37 billion, while for the US dollar, the figure sat at a slightly lower $89.82 billion. As for FX swap trading, their positions were reversed, with the US dollar at $223.06 billion, surpassing the Japanese yen at $177.54 billion. You can see a breakdown of the top 5 currencies by turnover below, shown in billions of USD:

The data also highlights that the USD and JPY account for most of the turnover in the Japanese market. The EUR, GBP, and AUD had a much lower turnover in comparison, as was the case with other currencies.

Most Popular Currency Pairs in Japan

Seeing as the US dollar is famous for the sheer volume of FX trades it is involved in both abroad and in Japan, it should not come as a surprise that the TFEMC has found that, in October 2024, the USD/JPY remained the most popular currency pair among Japanese forex traders. Spot transactions involving this pair accounted for over 62% of the total turnover. The EUR/USD, in contrast, had a share of 5.91%, and the EUR/JPY was at 6.93%. The TFEMC also provided extensive information on the performance of each forex pair, and below, traders can familiarize themselves with the total transactions executed for October 2024 per currency pair in billions of USD:

As for 2025, according to data from October, the USD/JPY remained the leader with a 58.5% share. However, this figure represents a year-over-year decrease of 4.28 percentage points. The EUR/USD accounted for 8.89% of the total turnover, while the EUR/JPY placed third with a share of 5.68%.

Most Popular International Forex Brokers Among Japanese Traders

We have established that Japan’s financial sphere is regulated by the Financial Services Agency (FSA). This supervisory entity is in charge of licensing forex brokers that operate solely in Japan and have an audience that is primarily Japanese, as well as international entities seeking to appeal to Japanese traders.

Both domestic and offshore brokers have gained a foothold in the Japanese forex market, and in 2026, Vantage Media conducted a survey seeking to assess which international brokers have the strongest presence in Japan. A total of 673 Japanese traders participated and stated which international broker they utilize the most.

As seen below, XMTrading emerged as the most popular broker, with more than 40% of the respondents stating that they use XMTrading on the regular. Other names that traders from overseas might be familiar with include Exness, FXGT, HFM, and Vantage.

Broker	% of Survey Participants Who Use This Broker
XMTrading	42.5%
Vantage Trading	12.78%
BigBoss	11.29%
FXGT	10.85%
Exness	5.05%
TitanFX	4.75%
ThreeTrader	3.27%
AXIORY	1.63%
HFM	1.63%
IronFX	1.63%
Bybit	0.89%
XS.com	0.74%
IS6FX	0.59%
MYFX Markets	0.59%
Axi	0.45%
SwiftTrader	0.3%
easyMarkets	0.3%
Others	0.74%

Additional Forex Trading Statistics
Forex Daily Trading Volume	Forex Trading Statistics
Most Traded Forex Currency Pairs	US Forex Trading Market
US Dollar Share of Global Currency Reserves	US Forex Trading Demographics

Written by N. Nazifova