Book excerpt: The Asian flu appears to have been cured. Foreign investment is rising again and Japanese equity derivatives are now in demand. With the growth in electronic trading and the deregulation of derivatives markets, the restrictions to global trading are being eroded and dealers predict that interest in global equity derivatives will continue to build. Although derivative instruments on Japanese stock indexes first became popular in the 1980s the market has developed in a peculiar way, contrasting sharply with the general evolution of equity derivatives in the West. The Japanese financial 'big bang' has fostered a spectacular surge in transactions and a dramatic increase in the number of local participants, competing with all leading European and US investment banks. Aimed at both Japanese and Western readers familiar with the basic concepts of financial derivatives, Japanese Equity Derivatives analyzes the Japanese equity derivatives market successively from the point of view of end-users and professional players. It highlights the stark differences between Eastern and Western markets and reviews the key aspects of Japanese equity derivatives, including risk management and deregulation. It investigates what has actually happened in Japanese equity derivatives, the local regulations, the abnormal profitability of derivatives trading activities, the various products available and the differences in market psychological behaviour. Philippe Avril has accumulated ten years of experience in this market, working both for top foreign players and a major domestic institution in arbitrage, trading and structuring activities. This has allowed him to provide an insider's point of view of past developments in the market as well as current and future trends. Japanese Equity Derivatives is an invaluable read for personal investors looking for alternative savings strategies, fund and portfolio managers, traders, active managers, risk managers, and heads of equity derivatives desks.