Japan Exchange Group Inc. plans to tap Hiromi Yamaji, president of its Osaka bourse unit, as the new president of its Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. unit, sources knowledgeable of the matter said Friday.

Japan Exchange Group CEO Akira Kiyota, 75, has tentatively doubled as TSE's president since Koichiro Miyahara stepped down from the top post in November to take responsibility for an unprecedented full-day trading suspension of the Tokyo bourse due to the failure of a backup system. A formal decision will be made soon, the sources said.

Yamaji, 65, who heads Osaka Exchange Inc. and also serves as director of the parent company, will be tasked with restoring trust by securing stable market operations after the worst outage in the Tokyo market's history on Oct. 1, which also stopped all trading of equities listed on stock exchanges in Sapporo, Nagoya and Fukuoka.

A TSE panel of market professionals has been working to craft new rules and guidance by March for the smooth recovery of trading systems after a serious shutdown.

Yamaji started his career with Nomura Securities Co. in 1977 after graduating from Kyoto University. He assumed the post of OSE president in 2013 when Japan Exchange Group was created through the merger of Tokyo Stock Exchange Group Inc. and Osaka Securities Exchange Co. He has steered the Osaka bourse to focus further on futures trading.

==Kyodo

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