MetaTrader 5 (MT5) is popular in Japan for specific reasons. It is a wildly popular multi-asset trading platform, although not as popular as MT4 (its predecessor). MT5 offers advanced and diverse trading functionalities coupled with technical analysis tools like indicators and Experts (EAs). Japan is an Asian financial hub for Forex trading with Tokyo being an important trading session where Asian traders exchange their currencies daily. The popularity of MT5 is influenced by several factors in Japan like brokers, regulations, and trader preferences. Let’s research a bit and conclude how popular MT5 is in Japan and why it became popular.

Introducing MetaTrader 5

MetaTrader 5 or MT5 is the next iteration of the widely popular FX trading platform, MT4 (MetaTrader 4). The platform offers all the features offered by MT4 and adds several of its own:

• Multi-asset trading – MT5 offers a wide range of assets for trading. It can be used to speculate profitably on currencies, commodities, indices, shares, and even cryptos.
• Advanced analytical tools – The platform offers a multitude of timeframes, technical indicators, and an integrated economic calendar for tracking the fundamentals.
• Algorithmic trading – Both MT4 and MT5 are famous for allowing traders to use Expert Advisors or EAs, which are automated algorithms, enabling traders to fully automate their trading strategies.

MT5, just like MT4, is a robust trading platform. Traders can use MT5 to trade the market and track economic indicators, which is super comfortable for beginners as they do not have to open multiple websites for news and information. However, traders need time and effort to master the platform, especially if they want to use EAs. Installing custom indicators and EAs is also a simple process but creating your own indicators and EAs is a completely different story.

Japanese brokers and MT5

One reason why MT5 has become very popular in Japan is that many reputable and regulated brokers offer the platform to their local clients. This made MT5 not just a popular platform for Forex trading but also a necessary one. Coupled with its advanced features and similarities with the wildly popular MT4 platform, MT5 quickly gained a user base and its article base for creating and using custom indicators and EAs only grew. However, MT5 is not still as popular as MT4 but if this trend continues it surely will surpass its predecessor.

MT5 features attracting Japanese traders

MetaTrader 5’s popularity in Japan is not a coincidence. The platform offers many advantages over other trading software including low spread possibility, diverse instrument support, cross-device accessibility, advanced analytics, and so on.

Low spreads and fast execution

MT5 is a modern software that enables traders and algorithms to instantly execute trading positions. Using MT5, brokers can easily provide low-spread accounts as the platform can provide immediate price updates. This is especially useful for Japanese traders who use algos or want to deploy various scalping strategies.

Multi-asset availability

As we have mentioned above, MT5 allows brokers to provide many different asset classes within one platform. Traders can access a multitude of markets while brokers can offer all their products in one angle platform, reducing the costs needed to maintain trading platforms.

Cross-device accessibility

This is probably one of the most powerful features of MetaTrader 5. Traders can access their MT5 trading account from any device using the same credentials (login and password). You can use desktop MT5 and then switch to mobile MT5 using the same credentials and trade on the go without the need to open a separate account for your mobile device.

Advanced analytics

The platform offers a full set of complex and advanced trading indicators, tools, drawings, tools, and other analytical instruments. Traders can select from tens of different indicators and use drawing tools or employ Fibonacci retracements and various other tools.

Comparing popularity: MT5 vs. MT4

After analyzing various reliable sources we have gathered some data to see how MT5 compares to MT4 when it comes to popularity among retail traders.

Data per FinanceMagnates.

As we can see, the MT5 platform has been gaining popularity among Japanese traders since 2022 and showed a peak percentage in 2024. This directly indicates that MT5 is here to stay and its popularity grows. This data indicates a clear shift towards MT5 by brokers as its market share has been increasing.

The growing preference for MT5 is not a coincidence. MT5 has been providing advanced trading features while it was developed, MetaQuotes was busy updating and refining the platform to be not only secure but also responsive and easy to use.