Japan's biggest initial public offering (IPO) in five years, semiconductor company Kokusai Electric, has been given a warm welcome as Tokyo enjoys a resurgence from shifting economic forces and stock market reforms.
Following on from Tokyo's Nikkei 225 recently notching up a 33-year high, Kokusai Electric was floated with a ¥108 billion (US$72 million, £60 billion) fundraising on Wednesday.
After the IPO was priced at ¥1,840 a share, the price closed at ¥2,350, a rise of 28% on the day, giving the company a market capitalisation of roughly ¥540 billion (US$3.6 billion).
Formerly part of giant Hitachi, Kokusai was taken private in 2017 for around US$1.7 billion.
The IPO, which comes at a time when Japan is entering what investment bankers see as a "transformational decade" thanks to new initiatives designed to encourage better capital allocation, is the largest since SoftBank Group spun off its mobile telecoms business SoftBank Corp at a ¥7.2 trillion valuation in 2018.
Investors' upbeat response to the IPO also reflects broader optimism in the chip sector, especially as US and European nations look to move production supply chains out of China amid geopolitical tensions.
Last month, SoftBank Group floated chip designer ARM Holdings in New York at a US$50 billion valuation.