Takuo Tsurushima, chief executive of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has admitted that a fault with the bourse’s systems was partly responsible for a trading blunder that caused chaos in the Japanese market.

In a press conference yesterday Mr Tsurushima said that he was considering the “appropriate course of action” to apologise for the error, including his resignation, and that he had launched an investigation.

Mizuho Securities revealed last week that it had placed an order on Thursday to sell 610,000 J-Com shares for one yen despite intending to sell one J-Com share for 610,000 yen as a result of a trader typing error known as “fat finger syndrome”. The mistake will cost Mizuho Securities an estimated 27 billion yen (£128 million).

Yesterday Mr Tsurushima admitted that the Tokyo trading system failed to respond to attempts by Mizuho to cancel the order when the broker swiftly realised its mistake.

Last month Mr Tsurushima had his pay slashed by 50 per cent for six months after trading in Tokyo was suspended for nearly an entire day as a result of a glitch on the trading system that was developed by Fujitsu.