Through an initial public offering (IPO), the company raised 48.8 billion yen by selling 2.77 million existing shares and 1.3 million new shares for 12,000 yen each.

``This is a company that has posted strong results and has a solid forecast for the coming year,'' said Keiichi Nakabayashi, analyst at Warburg Dillon Read in Tokyo. ``I think its fair value is somewhere around 12,500 to 15,000 yen in the current market climate, so its debut should be a positive one.''

Other analysts agreed, saying that while the toy seller's debut was unlikely to be as stellar as Internet-related IPOs seen earlier in the year, it will definitely not follow the path of more recent IPO disappointments amid doubts over the valuation of Internet shares.

Internet mall operator Rakuten Inc began trading on April 19 at 19.9 million yen, down 40 percent from its IPO price of 33 million yen. It since has rebounded to 39.5 million yen, 20 percent above its IPO price. Internet home page designer Livin' on the Edge began trading on April 6 at 4.4 million yen, down 26.6 percent from its IPO price of 6.0 million yen.

Toys R Us Japan has predicted sales of 158.39 billion yen for the year to January, 2001, against 134.56 billion for the past year to January.

It has also forecast a current profit of 7.43 billion yen for the year to next January, up 33 percent from the previous year and up 63 percent from the year before that.

The company plans to raise its number of stores in Japan to 100 by next January from 93 stores in operation at the end of last March. It has been in Japan for more than 10 years.

The U.S. parent's stake has dropped to around 50 percent, from around 80 percent, due to the IPO. It has said it will continue to hold a significant ownership stake.

[Updated 4/24/2000]