The Tokyo Stock Exchange was forced to suspend trading in Japanese government bond futures today after price moves triggered a circuit breaker introduced at the beginning of January. It is the third time this year that the exchange has been forced to halt trading in one of its products.

A spokesman for the exchange confirmed that trading had been suspended for 15 minutes today. New rules introduced in January mean there is a suspension when the price of Japanese government bond futures moves by more than two yen from the previous day's close. Today's example was the first since it was introduced.