LINE Corporation launches the LINE Securities, a mobile investment service, August 20, 2019. Based on the joint venture agreement to form a business partnership to pursue financial businesses focused on the securities business, LINE Financial Corporation ("LINE Financial") and Nomura Holdings Inc. ("Nomura") established LINE Securities Preparatory Corporation on June 1, 2018.

The company leverages LINE's extensive userbase, leading technologies, and high usability/mobile-optimized interface and combines this with Nomura's expertise in the financial business to offer a new and comprehensive securities service that addresses latent needs related to building assets.

Under its corporate mission of "investment made easy," LINE Securities is a new mobile investment service available on the LINE platform. During the initial phase after the launch, users can trade stocks of 100 leading Japanese companies and 9 domestic exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in amounts as small as one share/unit, and starting at several hundred yen. LINE Securities also offers instant buy/trade until 9 pm on weekdays, tailored to meet the lifestyles of the current working population.

In the Japanese retail securities market, the “working generation” is the key to success. Through the development of this segment, provision of innovative functions and creation of new value chains are likely to occur, which is highly anticipated in the Japanese financial services industry.

In the following, we will examine the significance and potential of the Emerging Mobile Investment Service in the terms of the Japanese wealth management market, digital consumer trends, and financial services in the open API era.