TDNet: The Complete English Guide to Japan's Corporate Disclosure System

TDNet (Timely Disclosure Network) is the electronic corporate disclosure system operated by the Tokyo Stock Exchange, a subsidiary of Japan Exchange Group (JPX). All 4,436 companies listed on JPX's markets are required to file material corporate information through TDNet, making it the single most important source of real-time corporate news in Japan's equity markets. TDNet processes earnings reports, dividend announcements, mergers and acquisitions, management changes, and dozens of other disclosure categories, typically publishing filings within minutes of a company's board decision. For foreign investors seeking to understand Japanese corporate activity, TDNet is the authoritative starting point, though its nearly exclusive use of the Japanese language presents a significant barrier.

This guide provides a comprehensive English-language reference to TDNet: how it works, what types of disclosures it carries, how it fits within Japan's broader regulatory framework, and how foreign investors can access the information it contains.

What TDNet Is and Its Role in Japan's Capital Markets

TDNet stands for Timely Disclosure Network (適時開示情報伝達システム, tekiji kaiji joho dentatsu shisutemu). It is the primary electronic system through which Japanese listed companies communicate material information to investors and the broader market. Operated by the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), TDNet serves as the central hub for corporate disclosures mandated under TSE's Securities Listing Regulations.

Every company listed on JPX, across the Prime, Standard, and Growth markets, is required to use TDNet for timely disclosure of information that could materially affect an investor's decision to buy, sell, or hold a security. This covers approximately 4,436 listed companies as of early 2026.

TDNet's role is analogous to the SEC's EDGAR system in the United States or the FCA's Regulatory News Service (RNS) in the United Kingdom, though there are structural differences. While EDGAR primarily handles statutory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, TDNet is exchange-operated and focused on speed: getting material information to the market as quickly as possible after a corporate decision is made.

The system is publicly accessible at https://www.release.tdnet.info/. No registration, login, or subscription is required to view filings. Documents are published as PDF files, almost exclusively in Japanese.

History and Evolution of TDNet

TDNet's development mirrors the broader modernization of Japan's capital markets infrastructure over the past three decades. Understanding its evolution provides context for both its strengths and its current limitations.

Throughout its evolution, TDNet has remained fundamentally a Japanese-language system. Even after the 2025 English-language requirement for Prime Market companies, the full filings on TDNet itself continue to be published in Japanese. The English-language summaries are routed through a separate platform, JPX GATE, and cover only a subset of disclosure types from a subset of listed companies.

What Types of Disclosures Are Filed on TDNet

TDNet carries a broad range of corporate disclosure types. The TSE's Securities Listing Regulations define specific categories of information that require timely disclosure. In practice, the filings that appear on TDNet fall into the following major categories:

The volume is substantial. TDNet typically processes 50-150 filings per trading day, varying by season and market activity. Volume spikes during earnings season, when hundreds of results announcements may be filed in a single day.

How TDNet Works: The Filing Process

Understanding the mechanics of TDNet is important for investors who rely on the timing and completeness of corporate disclosures.

Filing Process

1. Board decision: A company's board of directors approves a matter requiring timely disclosure (earnings results, dividend declaration, acquisition, etc.).
2. Document preparation: The company prepares the disclosure document according to TSE-prescribed formats. Earnings reports, for example, follow the kessan tanshin template with standardized fields for revenue, profit, dividends, and guidance.
3. Electronic submission: The company submits the filing electronically through TDNet's filing system. The submission includes the disclosure document as a PDF, along with metadata (company name, securities code, disclosure category, date).
4. Publication: TDNet publishes the filing on its public website, typically within minutes of submission. Information vendors with direct TDNet data feeds receive the filing simultaneously.
5. Market dissemination: Bloomberg, QUICK, Reuters, and other terminal providers distribute alerts to subscribers. The filing becomes part of the public record.

Timing

TSE listing rules require disclosure "without delay" once a material decision has been made or a material fact has occurred. In practice:

• Earnings reports: Most companies file between 15:00 and 16:00 JST, after the market close at 15:30 JST. Earnings season (late January to mid-February for Q3, late April to mid-May for full-year) sees concentrated filing activity.
• M&A and corporate actions: Filed promptly after board approval, regardless of market hours. Significant transactions are often announced after market close.
• Administrative filings: Officer changes, governance updates, and routine matters may be filed during business hours.

The 31-Day Retention Window

A critical limitation of TDNet for research purposes: filings remain publicly accessible on the TDNet website for only approximately 31 days from the publication date. After that window, the filing is removed from TDNet's public interface. For historical access, investors must rely on the company's own IR website, commercial data vendors, or archival services. Pulse News Wire archives source PDFs for an extended period, making many historical filings accessible beyond TDNet's 31-day window.

TDNet vs. EDINET vs. JPX GATE: Understanding Japan's Disclosure Systems

Japan has multiple corporate disclosure systems, each serving a different regulatory purpose. Foreign investors frequently confuse these systems. The following comparison clarifies the distinctions.

Feature	TDNet	EDINET	JPX GATE
Operator	Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE/JPX)	Financial Services Agency (FSA)	Japan Exchange Group (JPX)
Purpose	Timely disclosure of material events	Statutory securities filings	English-language disclosure excerpts
Companies covered	All 4,436 JPX-listed companies	All securities issuers in Japan	Prime Market only (~1,599)
Filing speed	Minutes after board decision	Days to weeks after event	Follows TDNet filing timing
Language	Japanese (almost exclusively)	Japanese (XBRL data available)	English (summaries only)
Content depth	Full disclosure documents	Comprehensive statutory reports	Excerpts and summaries
Key filing types	Earnings, M&A, dividends, officer changes, forecasts	Annual reports (yuho), quarterly reports, large shareholding reports	Earnings summaries, material event summaries
Retention period	~31 days	5+ years	Ongoing (launched 2025)
Access	Free, public	Free, public	Free, public

When to Use Which System

Use TDNet when you need real-time corporate disclosure as it happens: earnings results, M&A announcements, dividend declarations, management changes. TDNet is the fastest source.

Use EDINET when you need comprehensive statutory filings: annual securities reports (有価証券報告書, yuho), quarterly reports (四半期報告書, shihanki hokokusho), large shareholding disclosures (大量保有報告書, tairyo hoyu hokokusho). EDINET filings are more detailed but published with a longer lag time.

Use JPX GATE when you need official English-language summaries from Prime Market companies. Note that JPX GATE covers only a subset of disclosure types and does not include Standard or Growth Market companies.

The Language Barrier: Why TDNet Is Difficult for Foreign Investors

TDNet's greatest limitation for international investors is straightforward: the system operates almost entirely in Japanese. This creates a multi-layered information barrier.

The Scale of the Problem

Of the 4,436 companies listed on JPX:

• ~1,599 Prime Market companies are required (since April 2025) to file English-language summaries of key disclosures. These summaries are routed through JPX GATE, not TDNet itself, and cover only major disclosure types. Even for these companies, the full Japanese filing on TDNet often contains materially more detail than the English summary.
• ~1,569 Standard Market companies have no English-language disclosure requirement whatsoever. Their TDNet filings exist only in Japanese.
• ~614 Growth Market companies similarly have no English-language requirement. These high-growth, often venture-stage companies are invisible to non-Japanese-reading investors.

In total, approximately 2,300 JPX-listed companies, more than half of the market, produce no English-language disclosure materials of any kind. For these companies, TDNet's Japanese-only filings are the only source of timely corporate information.

What Existing Tools Provide

Several commercial services offer partial solutions to TDNet's language barrier:

• Bloomberg Terminal (~$25,000/year): Provides translated summaries of major filings from large-cap companies. Coverage skews heavily toward Prime Market and large Standard Market names. Small-cap and Growth Market coverage is limited.
• QUICK Terminal: Japan's domestic financial information service. Strong coverage of earnings data but primarily serves Japanese-language users. Limited English-language functionality.
• JPX GATE: Official English excerpts for Prime Market companies only across a limited set of disclosure types. Does not cover Standard or Growth Market (approximately 2,300 companies).
• Nikkei: Selective journalism covering major corporate events at large companies. Not a systematic disclosure translation service.

None of these services provides systematic, real-time English translations of all TDNet filings across all market segments. The gap is particularly acute for Standard and Growth Market companies, which collectively account for approximately 62% of JPX-listed names with zero analyst coverage in English.

How Pulse News Wire Translates TDNet Filings to English

Pulse News Wire is an independent service that monitors TDNet, downloads filed PDF documents, and produces English-language translations of corporate disclosures across all JPX market segments. Since January 2026, Pulse News Wire has published more than 12,000 translated articles covering all 4,436 listed companies.

Pulse News Wire has no official affiliation with TDNet, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, or Japan Exchange Group. It operates independently using publicly available TDNet filings.

The Translation Pipeline

For a detailed explanation of how Pulse News Wire translates TDNet filings, see the methodology page.

Confidence Scoring

Every Pulse News Wire article displays a confidence badge indicating the assessed quality of the translation:

• Confidence: High (85+) Strong translation quality. Numbers verified. Suitable for institutional use.
• Confidence: Standard (65-84) Adequate translation. Core facts and numbers present. Some nuance may be lost.
• Confidence: Review (<65) Lower confidence. Readers should cross-reference with the linked source PDF.

Across all published articles, approximately 83% score in the High tier, 13% in Standard, and 4% in Review. The confidence score methodology is documented on the methodology page.

What Pulse News Wire Is Not

Transparency matters. Pulse News Wire is an AI-assisted translation service. It is not:

• An official translation or publication of any exchange or regulatory body
• A substitute for professional legal or financial translation where contractual precision is required
• A source of investment advice or recommendation
• Affiliated with TDNet, TSE, JPX, or any Japanese regulatory authority

The original Japanese filing is always the authoritative document. Every Pulse News Wire article links to the archived source PDF.

Regulatory Context: TSE Listing Rules and Timely Disclosure Requirements

TDNet exists within a specific regulatory framework. Understanding the rules that govern timely disclosure helps explain what TDNet contains and why.

The Securities Listing Regulations

The Tokyo Stock Exchange's Securities Listing Regulations (有価証券上場規程, yuuka shouken joujou kitei) define the obligations of listed companies regarding timely disclosure. Key provisions include:

• Material decisions: Companies must disclose decisions made by the board of directors or equivalent governing body that could materially affect an investor's assessment of the company. This includes mergers, acquisitions, new share issuances, dividend changes, business transfers, and dissolution of subsidiaries.
• Material facts: Companies must disclose facts that have occurred (as opposed to decisions made) that could materially affect investors. This includes damage from disasters, litigation, regulatory actions, and significant changes in major shareholders.
• Financial results: Companies must disclose earnings results, forecast revisions, and dividend changes through the prescribed kessan tanshin format.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

Companies that fail to comply with timely disclosure requirements face potential sanctions from the TSE, including:

• Public admonishment (improvement report requirement)
• Listing supervision (watchlist placement)
• Trading suspension
• In extreme cases, delisting

The enforcement mechanism creates strong incentives for prompt disclosure, which is why TDNet functions as a near-real-time information system rather than a periodic filing repository.

The 2022 Market Restructuring

JPX's April 2022 market restructuring replaced the legacy First Section, Second Section, Mothers, and JASDAQ market segments with three new segments: Prime, Standard, and Growth. Each segment carries different governance and disclosure expectations:

• Prime Market: The highest governance tier. Companies must maintain a minimum free float of 10 billion yen. Since April 2025, Prime Market companies must provide English-language disclosure summaries. Approximately 1,599 companies.
• Standard Market: Companies meeting basic listing criteria. No English-language disclosure requirement. Approximately 1,569 companies.
• Growth Market: High-growth companies, often at an earlier stage. Lighter disclosure requirements than Prime or Standard. No English-language requirement. Approximately 614 companies.

The May 2026 Tender Offer Rule Change

A significant regulatory change takes effect in May 2026: the mandatory tender offer threshold drops from one-third (approximately 33%) to 30% of outstanding shares. This means that any acquisition bringing an investor's holdings to 30% or above will trigger mandatory tender offer requirements under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. The change is expected to increase the volume of tender offer-related filings on TDNet and has implications for activist investors, private equity, and cross-border M&A involving Japanese companies.

How to Access TDNet: A Practical Guide

Accessing TDNet Directly

TDNet's public website is accessible at https://www.release.tdnet.info/. The interface allows users to:

• Browse filings by date (the default view shows the current day's filings)
• Search by company name or five-digit securities code
• Filter by disclosure category
• Download individual filings as PDF documents

The interface is in Japanese. Filings are displayed with the company name, securities code, disclosure title, and timestamp. Clicking a filing opens or downloads the PDF document.

Accessing TDNet Through Data Vendors

Professional investors typically access TDNet filings through data terminal providers:

• Bloomberg: TDNet filings are partially integrated into Bloomberg's Japanese equity coverage, primarily for Prime Market and larger Standard Market companies. Coverage of smaller Standard Market and Growth Market companies is limited or absent. Users can access available filings through a company's disclosure page or through news alerts.
• QUICK: Japan's primary domestic financial information provider. Offers the most comprehensive TDNet integration for Japanese-language users.
• Refinitiv (LSEG): Provides TDNet filing data through its Eikon and Workspace platforms.

Accessing TDNet in English

For English-language access to TDNet filings:

• JPX GATE: Official English excerpts for Prime Market companies. Free access. Limited to summaries of key disclosure types.
• Pulse News Wire: Publishes English articles summarizing TDNet filings across all market segments. Covers all 4,436 JPX-listed companies, including the approximately 2,300 Standard and Growth Market companies that have no other English-language source. Every article links to the original Japanese PDF for verification. See recent articles.