Japanese Students Turn To Mammon

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Students pooling cash to invest in their futures
University students anxious about their pensions or hoping to find well-paid jobs are increasingly pooling their money and forming investment clubs to buy and sell shares. The entrepreneurial students hope to learn about how the economy works and gain expertise in asset management through investing in stocks. However, some analysts fear that students who get absorbed in these investment undertakings might end up gaining an interest in money for the wrong reasons. Every Friday evening, on Keio University's Hiyoshi Campus in Kohoku Ward, Yokohama, students carrying magazines with information on stocks attend a meeting of SPEC (Keio Stock Club)..."There's a degree of guilt associated with stock trading, but it's an excellent way to learn about economics," said Hideki Sekito, 20, a representative of the club and a student in the university's science and technology department...Aside from the educational aspects of these clubs, some students expect they can profit if their investments perform well. However, Takuro Morinaga, a professor of labor economics at Dokkyo University's economics department and author of several economic best sellers, warns against this. "One false step, and you could turn into a money-worshipper and make some foolish moves," he said...more...