Last week, as part of their Semester 1 excursion, the Grade 11 students visited the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), located in the Nihonbashi district. The first part of the experience was a brief video explaining how the stock market works and how it developed in Japan.

After this, the students were given a guided tour of the facility, which included an overview of the history of stock trading in Japan and an explanation of the functions and responsibilities that the TSE undertakes in its role as the public body overseeing and administrating the stock market for Japan. The students were fortunate enough to actually witness a new company being listed on that day. This involved a number of ceremonies, including the ringing of the ceremonial bell by the company’s CEOs.

After the tour, all students took part in a computer based stock market simulation. Here they had to make decisions about buying and selling of stock in three fictional companies. The computers generated fictitious breaking news articles and the students had to decide what impacts these changes may have had on the companies and buy and sell stock accordingly. Everyone started with a base of 10,000,000 Yen, and after half an hour of trading and 8 breaking news articles, a winner was announced.

Congratulations went to Liam, who not only beat the Economics teacher into second place, but also ended the game with nearly double the closest competitors’ total; a final total of 55,000,000 Yen. A future financial whizz in the making! Our thanks goes to the TSE administration who made our visit fun, educational and interesting. The buzz from our students as they walked out of the building and on to the next part of the excursion day was indicative that it was an experience that will live long with them.