The Tokyo Stock Exchange is trying out a Beta version of a service called J-Lens, which uses Natural Language Processing to help investors search for company announcements using non-standard criteria. From the website:
Service Overview
“J-LENS” supports cases that were previously difficult to find using conventional keyword searches, such as:
Materials with variations in notation
(e.g., TOB/public tender offer, interest rate hike/increase in interest rates)
Searches for negation or non-inclusion in content
(e.g., materials that do not disclose earnings forecasts in short-form financial statements/materials that mention the yen’s depreciation but state that the impact on profits is limited)
Searches combining numerical values
(e.g., disclosures where dividend forecasts increased by more than 50%/companies whose sales decreased by more than 10% year-on-year)
Searches for ambiguous expressions or abstract content
(e.g., materials describing a shift in business policy/reports on companies actively utilizing generative AI/companies announcing overseas expansion)
Beta Environment Details
Coverage period: Disclosure materials submitted to TDnet from three years ago up to two days ago
Companies covered: Companies listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange
Searchable items: In addition to natural language content search, filtering by search period, listing market, industry, and disclosure item (type of disclosure) is possible
Note that the site is in Japanese and results are in Japanese as well. It is easy to enble your browser's translation features so you can use English
You can access the portal to the service here.
I tried using it to search for announcements from Nintendo in 2025 that provided dividend information using the prompt "list all the announcements from Nintendo in 2025 that provided dividend information, such as announcements or forecasts". No luck.
I tweaked the prompt a little:
"list all the announcements, for both dividend-related disclosures or other disclosures that included dividend information, from Nintendo 7974 in 2025 that provided dividend information, such as announcements or forecasts". Bingo!
This is accurate, as we can verify this from a simple Google search. This is a very simple test, but it suggests that the prompts need to be precise.
I like the summary at the bottom of every search result, explaining why the entry was included.
However, the announcements pulled are in Japanese. I know that Nintendo has been making announcements in English for years, so I can head over to the company website for them.
I'm hoping that if this service leaves Beta, it wll include the ability to select English announcements. The Tokyo Stock Exchange has made it necessary for companies list on the Prime market to make announcements in English starting in 2025, with some companies doing so by 2026.
I think this is a small move but part of an overall effort to make Japanese companies open to foreign investors. Also, a good use of technology to ease a persistent pain point for investors!
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