The Japan Exchange Group - the parent company of the Tokyo Stock Exchange - announced that it has extended the number of regular trading hours for the Japanese stock market by 30 minutes each day, starting from today’s session; Tuesday.

According to the new schedules, the Japanese stock market will operate from 9 AM to 3:30 PM Tokyo time, with a one-hour break for lunch.

It is worth noting that this is the first extension of trading hours at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 70 years, as the trading hours for the Japanese market were last adjusted in November 2011.

This step comes as part of efforts to improve competitiveness and attract more investors to the Japanese stock market.

However, analysts said it is still unclear whether the recent change will lead to an immediate increase in trading activity at the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Data from JPX showed that the trading volume in the Prime market for top-tier stocks reached about 1.9 billion shares on Tuesday, which is down from about 2.0 billion shares traded on Friday.