Alpari to withdraw from Japan

It seems Alpari is domination this week's Forex headlines. Alpari both announced the sponsorship of the Madison Square Garden (including the New York Knicks) and that one of its group companies has received a CySEC license. We now also learn that Alpari is withdrawing from Japan.

In a laconic statement on its UK website this can be seen:

Important changes affecting residents of Japan:

We would like to inform you that Alpari (UK) has taken the decision to withdraw from the Japanese market and will no longer provide a trading service for residents of Japan. We can assure you that this decision has not been taken lightly, and has resulted from regulatory and commercial considerations. If you have any queries regarding this matter, please contact our client services team on support@alpari.jp. Alpari (UK).

This is actually not surprising as with the leverage decrease there brokers' profitability has immensely decreased while the comparativeness has risen. Alpari is also not a local player and Japan is notoriously a difficult market to operate at and is almost exclusively being dominated by huge local players such as Gaitame.