OSAKA -- Starbucks Coffee Japan Ltd. made a superb debut Wednesday on the Nasdaq Japan stock market as investors scooped up shares of the high-profile firm.

The Tokyo-based operator of Starbucks coffee outlets in Japan finished its first day at 70,000 yen, up 6,000 yen or 9.38 percent from its initial public offering price of 64,000 yen.

The close marks a turnaround from the recent weakness of new listings in which seven previous issues finished their first day lower than their IPO prices.

"There is hardly anyone who doesn't know about Starbucks in Japan," said Yuji Ono, a manager at the equity division of Nikko Cordial Securities Inc.

Starbucks Coffee Japan made an IPO of 280,000 shares -- 220,000 new shares and 60,000 existing shares.

The closing price has brought Starbucks' market capitalization to 99.4 billion yen, the second-largest after Softbank Investment Corp. on the Nasdaq Japan market of the Osaka Securities Exchange.

The company opened at 80,000 yen as individual investors swallowed up stocks in the high-profile company. Individuals found it easy and affordable investing in Starbucks as its minimum trading unit is one share.

A senior OSE official said, "Starbucks is expected to lure individual investors to the Nasdaq Japan market" just as McDonald's Co. (Japan) Ltd. has stimulated stock trading by individuals on the Jasdaq over-the-counter stock market.

But an analyst at a major securities company warned Starbucks stock is "too expensive," with its price earnings ratio coming to 76, much higher than the average of food and drink shop operators.

In Tokyo, meanwhile, Starbucks Coffee Japan President Yuji Tsunoda said his company will increase its outlets to 500 by the end of March 2004. Starbucks currently has 291 cafes in Japan.

The target is "readily possible" and not an end, Tsunoda said at a news conference.

As of Wednesday, the company had 291 shops in Japan, only five years after launching Japan's first Starbucks in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district in August 1996.

Starbucks Coffee Japan was founded in October 1995 as a joint venture between Sazaby Inc. and Starbucks Coffee International, the international arm and subsidiary of Starbucks Coffee Co. of the United States.

"The debut of Starbucks Coffee Japan will be a touchstone for other new companies planning to get listed," said Nikko Cordial Securities' Ono. "It will be encouraging for new firms to see that popular companies will be actively bought."

But the environment surrounding Starbucks Coffee Japan's debut is severe. Ono said many key stocks have fallen in line with the sagging market.

The company chalked up unconsolidated pretax profits of 1.4 billion yen on sales of 29.1 billion yen in fiscal 2000, which ended in March.