Japan's Financial Services Agency has ordered an individual identified only as "A," a Tokyo resident, to pay a ¥6.27mn surcharge for manipulating the shares of three listed companies over roughly ten weeks in late 2023. The payment is due November 17, 2026, and the respondent skipped every hearing in the case and filed no defense.
The FSA's decision, issued September 16 by Commissioner Yutaka Ito, describes a layering scheme run through three brokerages named in the filing only as B, C, and D Securities. The tactic: stack large sell orders above the prevailing price to make the offer side look heavy, buy shares cheaply once other traders react to the false depth, then flip the trick by loading the bid side with buy orders before selling into the resulting bounce.
Three stocks, three windows
- BASE FOOD, the meal-replacement food maker on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Growth market, was targeted from October 5 to November 27, 2023. The respondent submitted sell orders for about 7.62 million shares but actually sold only 282,500; on the buy side, orders for 376,400 shares produced 358,600 shares bought.
- Gunosy, the news-app operator on the Prime market, was targeted from October 10 to December 5, 2023, with sell orders for about 8.16 million shares against 242,400 shares actually sold, and buy orders for 239,400 shares against 419,600 shares actually bought.
- Nippon Gear Co., the Standard-market industrial equipment maker, had a shorter run, December 5 to 14, 2023, worked through only two of the three brokerages, with sell orders for about 1.46 million shares against just 85,500 shares actually bought.
| Stock | Market | Period (2023) | Surcharge subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|
| BASE FOOD | TSE Growth | Oct 5 – Nov 27 | ¥3.16mn |
| Gunosy | TSE Prime | Oct 10 – Dec 5 | ¥2.25mn |
| Nippon Gear Co. | TSE Standard | Dec 5 – Dec 14 | ¥860,000 |
None of the three companies is accused of wrongdoing. The filing describes the manipulation as one trader's own-account activity on the exchange, not any action by BASE FOOD, Gunosy, or Nippon Gear management.
The FSA built the ¥6.27mn figure stock by stock: the gap between what the trader paid on matched buys and received on matched sells, plus a separate charge for any unmatched position still open when a manipulation episode ended, valued at the lowest price recorded over the following month. That leftover-position charge alone added ¥1.96mn to a single ten-day stretch in BASE FOOD shares in mid-October, more than the entire surcharge attributed to Nippon Gear.
The hearing process opened April 24, 2026, and closed with the September 16 decision. A kachōkin surcharge is a civil administrative penalty rather than a criminal fine, and the FSA's public materials do not identify the respondent beyond the single-letter code used throughout the case.