Firms in the Classroom: You don’t have to be a lobby guard to not like this. In Japan they don’t see it that narrowly. But do financial firms really teach children better money management?
From
Thomas Hahn, Tokyo
“The Power of Stocks” could also be the title of a Ken Follett novel that tells of intrigues and pathological greed in the stock market. But it isn’t, on the contrary. The Japanese stock brokerage company Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities (MUMSS) alludes to the power that securities can give to buyers. “The Power of Shares” is the name of their educational program for young people in middle and high school. Only recently MUMSS was able to win over two private schools again. At the Toshimagaoka Joshigakuen in Tokyo and the Edogawa Gakuen Toride in Ibaraki, MUMSS has been helping to organize the financial lessons since the beginning of April. The responsible MUMSS manager Aoi Moriyama says about the aim of the cooperation: “We want to improve the financial knowledge of the students and help them to not only save but also to invest as adults.” So it’s also about training young people for the customer base?