The exchange was ingrained in the economic life of late-feudal Japan for almost two centuries. The fact that such a sophisticated market grew organically on its own makes me somewhat optimistic that, given the right conditions, the futures industry can flourish in Japan. In fact, margin trading in foreign-exchange, which is quite similar to futures trading, is popular at the retail level in Japan.
This 4% nominal growth rate is equal to the average between 2000 and 2008 and much higher than the meager 0.87% average from 2009 to 2014, with 1.8% last year. If the exogenous external factors implicit in those projections materialize and our policies are successful, it is very important to underline the deep significance of what these numbers imply.