Japan hopes the reforms will boost the market

The decision follows a series of technical mishaps which shut down the world's second largest exchange and dealt a blow to investor confidence.

The Tokyo Stock exchange is currently implementing various reforms at feverish pace," exchange president Taizo Nishimuro said.

The shake-up is expected to cost 62bn yen ($529.9m; �302.8m).

Normal trading hours

Within the investment is 15bn yen aimed at establishing a back-up system, which the exchange currently does not have.

The secondary system would be based outside Tokyo and used in case of a terrorist attack or earthquake.

The move is intended to make the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) more reliable as well as set up joint partnerships with foreign exchanges.

The trading day on the JSE has been shortened following an incident at the start of this year.

On 19 January, the exchange had to close down for half an hour after a scandal at internet company Livedoor prompted massive stock sell offs which almost pushed the exchange's computer system into melt-down.

The exchange postponed plans to go public following the Livedoor incident and reduced its trading day by half an hour as a security measure.

This came after the exchange's chief executive resigned in December when a trader inadvertently prompted a $330m loss by pressing the wrong button on his keyboard.

Mr Nishimuro said the exchange hoped to resume normal trading hours this month, earlier than the expected date of May.

In February, the exchange also said it would increase the volume of share orders by 30% to 12 million. It plans to increase this figure to 14 million by the end of the year..