Tokyo bourse wants 10 Japan DR listings by yr-end

TOKYO, Apr 28 (Reuters) The head of the Tokyo Stock Exchange said on Friday Asia's biggest bourse wants to list about 10 companies through the Japanese version of American depositary receipts (ADRs) by the end of the year.

The Tokyo bourse has been trying to woo foreign firms to cement its leading position in the region as the number of foreign companies listed on the Tokyo bourse has shrunk to 27 from 125 at the end of 1990.

They represent only about 1 percent of the total listings, down from 7 percent in 1990, because many pulled out after the bursting of the bubble economy due to low trading volume and high cost of listing.

''We have seriously been discussing (a Japanese depositary receipts system) since late last year,'' Tokyo bourse President Taizo Nishimuro told a parliamentary committee. ''It is the right time. We would like to have about 10 companies by the year-end.'' Japan currently lacks laws or a set of guidelines to govern the issuance of depositary receipts, which would enable overseas companies, especially those in South Korea and other countries that ban firms from listing on overseas bourses, to raise funds in Japan.

Depositary receipts also allow individual investors in Japan to have access to foreign firms.

South Korea's POSCO debuted on the bourse last November, but the world's fifth-biggest steel maker chose American depositary receipts instead of the Japanese version. There are no other DR listings of foreign companies right now.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry had expressed the need to streamline regulations for Japanese depositary receipts so that foreign companies can list on the Tokyo bourse more easily.

REUTERS CS PM0931