Two Listings, Two Paths: What Ory’s and Crasus Chemical Reveal About Tokyo’s Public Markets

On September 29, the Tokyo Stock Exchange is scheduled to welcome two companies that share a listing date but little else about the route they are taking to the public market. Ory’s Co., Ltd. (637A), a digital-marketing support company, is set to join TOKYO PRO Market. Crasus Chemical Inc. (646A), the Oita-based petrochemicals producer separated from the Resonac group, is scheduled to list on the TSE Standard Market. Both are new listings. But the rules, investors, ownership mechanics and corporate purposes behind them are markedly different.^[1]

That contrast matters because “listing” in Japan is still often treated as shorthand for a conventional IPO: a company sells new or existing shares, books are built, a public offering price is fixed and fresh capital changes hands. Neither of these September 29 listings fits that familiar script. Ory’s is not conducting a conventional public offering as it joins a professional-investor market. Crasus Chemical is also listing without a public offering or secondary sale; its debut is tied to a partial spin-off from Resonac Holdings and a direct listing. The story is therefore less about two companies raising money than about two different uses of the stock exchange.

Ory’s: a listing that is not primarily a fundraising event

Founded in 2011, Ory’s operates in performance advertising and broader marketing support, including analytics and marketing-technology implementation. TSE records show that its TOKYO PRO Market application was announced on August 25 and approved on September 8. The company will trade under code 637A, with Phillip Capital Japan serving as its J-Adviser.^[2][4]

The essential point is that TOKYO PRO Market is not simply a smaller version of the Growth or Standard markets. Its principal investors are “specified investors” and related professional categories under Japan’s financial-market framework. TSE says the market does not impose the same numerical listing criteria for shareholder counts, tradable shares or profit levels used elsewhere. Instead, a J-Adviser plays the central role in assessing listing suitability and supporting ongoing compliance.^[3]

That makes a TPM listing useful for purposes beyond an immediate equity raise. It can give a company public-company status, a disclosure discipline, an exchange-traded reference point and potentially greater visibility with employees, clients, lenders and future investors. But the trade-off is equally important: investors should not assume the liquidity, breadth of ownership or disclosure cadence of a mainstream public market. The market is intentionally different.

A market with roots in London AIM

TOKYO PRO Market has an international lineage. According to TSE, its predecessor, TOKYO AIM, opened in June 2009 after amendments to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act created a framework for professional-investor markets. Tokyo Stock Exchange Group and London Stock Exchange established the market jointly, borrowing from London AIM’s Nominated Adviser model. Japan adapted that concept into the J-Adviser system. In July 2012, TOKYO AIM was renamed TOKYO PRO Market and came fully under TSE operation.^[3]

The underlying idea was to create more than one front door to the public market. A company that is not yet suited to the shareholder base, liquidity requirements or examination process of the larger TSE segments can still enter a regulated exchange environment built for professional investors. Ory’s shows how that route is now being used by a people-intensive digital-services business rather than only by industrial or asset-heavy companies.

Crasus Chemical: a new company built on a 1969 industrial base

Crasus Chemical presents almost the opposite corporate history. The legal entity was established in August 2024 and began operations in January 2025 after taking over the petrochemical business of Resonac Holdings and Resonac. But the industrial roots go back to the former Showa Denko Oita Petrochemical Complex, completed in 1969. The company produces basic petrochemicals including ethylene and propylene, organic chemicals derived in part from acetic acid, and synthetic-resin products.^[5][6]

TSE’s new-listing outline identifies Oita City as the company’s registered headquarters and Hirotsugu Fukuda as representative director. It lists 234,415,443 shares outstanding at listing and a 100-share trading unit. Most unusually for readers accustomed to IPO mechanics, the filing states plainly that there will be no public offering and no secondary sale connected with the listing.^[5]

The key mechanism is a partial spin-off

Crasus Chemical’s shareholder base is being created through a partial spin-off. Resonac Holdings has resolved to distribute a portion of its Crasus Chemical shares to Resonac shareholders as an in-kind dividend. Unlike a complete spin-off, the parent does not necessarily dispose of every share it owns. The result is a separate listed company with a shareholder base derived in significant part from the parent’s existing owners.^[7]

Economically, that makes this listing very different from a conventional capital raise. Crasus is not going public primarily to sell a block of new stock for cash. Instead, the transaction separates a mature petrochemical operation from a diversified corporate group and gives that business its own listed equity, its own market valuation and a clearer line of accountability to shareholders.

For Resonac, the separation can sharpen portfolio boundaries. For Crasus, independence means that investors can assess the economics of petrochemicals more directly: feedstock exposure, plant utilization, energy costs, cyclical demand, maintenance capital and the large investments required to move heavy chemical production toward lower-carbon processes. Greater independence can create strategic focus, but it also removes some of the shelter that comes with being one division inside a larger group.

Two listings reveal a more segmented public market

The point is not that one route is inherently better. They solve different problems. A smaller services company may value a lighter, professional-investor route to exchange status. A mature industrial operation may need a stand-alone valuation and governance structure after being separated from a conglomerate. The appropriate path depends on scale, ownership, financing needs, desired liquidity and the cost of disclosure.

Why “access to capital” needs a more precise definition

Both listings also require a more careful use of the phrase “access to capital.” A company can benefit from being listed even when it raises no cash on day one. A quoted equity security can create options for future financing, acquisitions, employee incentives and ownership changes. Public disclosure can also affect relationships with lenders and business partners.

But those possibilities are not the same as actual capital raised in the listing. In this case, neither Ory’s nor Crasus should be described as conducting a standard cash-raising IPO on September 29. That distinction matters for readers comparing deals, valuations or “IPO proceeds.” There are no conventional IPO proceeds to compare.

What to watch after September 29

New listings are often reduced to first-day prices. For these two companies, the more useful questions begin after the opening bell.

For Ory’s, the test will be whether TPM status translates into sustained disclosure quality, useful price formation and enough trading interest to make the listing meaningful to stakeholders. It will also be worth watching whether the company eventually seeks a move to a market open to a broader investor base.

For Crasus Chemical, the central questions are industrial rather than promotional: how an independent petrochemical company allocates capital, manages commodity cycles, finances decarbonization and explains returns on large fixed assets. The market will now have a cleaner way to separate those economics from the rest of the Resonac portfolio.

Seen together, 637A and 646A show a Tokyo market that is becoming less monolithic. The stock exchange is still a place to raise equity, but it is also a place to formalize disclosure, establish an independent valuation, reorganize ownership and draw clearer boundaries around businesses. Two listings on one September morning make that evolution unusually visible.