Japanese/English The Tokyo stock exchange bid farewell to floor trading on Friday and welcomed in computerised trading to take the world's second biggest economy into the year 2000. During the late 1980s, the daily frenzy on the floor of the Tokyo Stock Exchange was a symbol of Japan's energetic economy. But with the country in recession - stock exchange officials say using computers will be a more economical way of running the country's economy. The end of an era for these workers, carrying out floor trading for the last time. From tomorrow computers rather than people will be running the exchange. The decision to make the change comes in the wake of the Asian financial crisis which has plunged Japan into recession. The use of computers and cost-cutting are putting an end to the 120-year old tradition of face-to-face trading on Asia's largest exchange. Floor trading is still done in New York and Frankfurt, Germany, but other major exchanges have already gone electronic. Since 1986, stock exchanges in Hong Kong, Singapore, London, and Paris have closed their trading floors. The last deal in the Tokyo Stock Exchange was made at 0300gmt on Friday. Stock exchange officials held a special closing ceremony to mark the end of an era. SOUNDBITE: (Japanese) "It has been 120 years since the birth of stock market in this country. Since then, this trading floor has been the place where people meet and stock price to be determined and to be informed to public. This place has also been the symbol of economy." SUPER CAPTION: Mitsuhide Yamaguchi, Chairman, Tokyo Stock Exchange Stocks have been traded on the Tokyo exchange since 1878, though the market was closed for almost four years from 1945 as the country focused its attention on waging war.. The huge open floor of the Tokyo bourse was once crowded with more than 2-thousand traders fighting for position as they used a complex sign language to buy and sell stocks. On Friday, after the end of the trading day, a closing ceremony with confetti and party noisemakers was held. A dozen securities-industry veterans demonstrated what is soon to be a lost art - trading by hand signals with which (m) millions of dollars worth of shares could be bought with the wave of a finger. Securities companies began switching to faster and more reliable electronic trading systems in the early 1980s. By last year, any Japanese stock could be bought and sold electronically while fewer than 10 percent could be traded directly on the floor. Only about 100 employees still worked there and floor trading accounted for a scant 0.2 percent of Tokyo volume. Trading floor veterans said the shift to computers was inevitable, especially because of the growing complexity of financial markets. SOUNDBITE: (Japanese) "I cannot tell how lively the market is going to be. I have concerns over that." SUPER CAPTION: Voxpop SOUNDBITE: (Japanese) " I worked here for 40 years. This is nothing but sad farewell to me." SUPER CAPTION: Voxpop Much has changed since the formal stock exchanged opened. In the early years traders wore kimono and wooden shoes and exchange officials tallied transactions with abacuses. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/5c5b253b1e56bed07eef942f1d6607dd Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork