The number of IPOs in 2007 was the smallest since the establishment of Japan’s small-company stock markets, such as TSE Mothers, OSE Hercules and Nagoya Centrex. During the year, we saw a rapid increase in the hurdles that companies had to overcome to receive approval for an IPO. For example, the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law requires tighter internal controls, stock exchange listing examinations are much more rigorous, and accounting firms use extremely conservative standards for their audits.