A junior high school girl announced that she was planning to buy chocolate in February, but she wasn't thinking about getting a Valentine's Day present for her boyfriend. She was talking about a classroom game the Tokyo Stock Exchange has devised to instruct children in the way stocks operate.
While adults argue over the pros and cons of teaching the workings of the stock market in school, the youngsters are enjoying the game and taking a fairly objective view of what investment is all about.
Improving the Stock Market's Image
Participating in the game are a total of 1,300 students at 15 junior and senior high schools around the country. They form investment teams, each of which has 10 million yen to invest in their choice of any of 300 firms with TSE listings. They fill in a computer marksheet with the issue code, the number of shares, and whether these are being bought or sold; the marksheet is sent to the TSE, which analyzes the transaction by computer and returns the results.
The TSE was prompted to create the game by the results of a questionnaire survey it took among some 200 high schoolers who visited the exchange two years ago. Asked what image they held of the stock market, the great majority replied that they associated it with like gambling, speculation, bankruptcy, and political corruption. Taking a hint from the United States, where 18,000 schools have already enthusiastically incorporated education about the stock market into classroom instruction, the TSE, with the cooperation of the Japan Securities Dealers Association, developed this game to give young people a correct understanding of how the stock market works and the role stock investment plays in the economy.
Lessons on the Economy
At a junior high school in Toyama Prefecture, 19 students joined in the game as part of their social studies course. The best results were gotten by a team that bought stock in a film manufacturer, a decision they made after reckoning that lots of photos would be taken around the New Year, when families get together and many people go on trips. Having increased their assets through the investment, they are now looking for a new company to invest in. As the kids look over newspaper stock listings and the Japan Company Hand Book, discussion is lively: "February's big event is Valentine's Day, so we should invest in chocolate," "When do new cars come on the market?," "It's cold this year, so kerosene should sell well."
Adults Argue the Pros and Cons
Some adults oppose teaching investment knowhow in school, feeling dubious about the schools' ability to give children a correct understanding of the questionable aspects of securities today, including the dangers of stocks, and concerned that such instruction will include only what is to the advantage of securities firms. Those who favor teaching it say that through such mock experiences children will develop the ability to observe society and that since the stock market, including the dangers of stock investment, actually exist in society, going out of the way to avoid them is inappropriate.
Unconcerned about these adult worries, however, the kids have offered comments on the game like: "I was surprised to learn that just a rumor can have an immediate affect on the value of stocks," "I came to realize that securities help economic development," and "Making money in this world isn't as easy as I thought."
(The above article, edited by Japan Echo Inc., is based on domestic Japanese news sources. It is offered for reference purposes and does not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Japanese Government.)