While the Japanese stock market may have had an unpretentious year overall, one area is booming: new quotes.

December is expected to see the highest number of companies listed in a single month in Japan, with a total of 32 companies due to go public before the end of the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This would exceed the 31 companies put on the market in December 2005.

While the rush of companies to file listing requests by year-end was a factor, the 2021 figure was also supported by the growth in the number of IT start-ups.

Ventures had also delayed registrations during the pandemic, with new cases of the coronavirus in the country now near their lowest since the start of the pandemic.

Nomura – no connection to Japan’s largest brokerage house – a food industry packaging maker over 60 years old, launched the procedure in December. The shares fell nearly 20% when they debuted Thursday.

Investors like Lovable Marketing Group, Institution for a Global Society, ExaWizards and Croooober, all of which are expected to be listed before the end of the year, are hoping for better performance.

Almost all of the companies will be making their debut in the Mothers market for start-ups and small businesses. This index is down 14% this year, after increasing during the pandemic in 2020.

This year, as a whole, is expected to see the highest number of registrations in 15 years in Japan.

Still, changes are likely underway: New Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pointed out that the Japanese start-up scene is an area in need of support and called for rethinking the registration process, though he was vague on the details.

Mr. Kishida’s panel on “new capitalism” also raised the issue of the lack of unicorns in Japan – private companies valued at over $ 1 billion – compared to the United States and Europe. He also noted the average age of the largest Japanese companies, many of which were formed in the years after WWII, such as Sony Group and Honda Motor, compared to newer giants like Amazon.

Another common complaint in the Japanese start-up scene is the tendency of companies to register too early.

While December is expected to be a record month, the total amount raised by companies that have listed or valued this year is 548 billion yen ($ 4.8 billion). This is a far cry from the 3 trillion yen raised in 2018, a figure inflated by the SoftBank group by running its SoftBank mobile unit.

Updated: December 4, 2021, 06:03