Many students are recently interested in studying mathematical finance because this leads to many interesting and well paid jobs in the
industry. Nevertheless, many believe that there is no need to learn the mathematical part of the theory and only learn the least possible
so that one can land a job in the industry.

Here are some facts that you have to consider before deciding this:

1. Many of the people that obtain a job in the industry, some years after are transferred to menial tasks related to
sales or computers as their bosses realize that they can not carry on with the technical part of the job.

2. The "technical" part of the job does not consist of taking a mathematics book and read it with all detail and making sure that
all proofs are correct. This job consists in understanding quickly a technical paper, being able to understand its mechanics,
being able to explain and discuss it with others and if necessary implementing it. It's difficult to achieve this if the "technical" paper is written in
mathematical terms. Off course you will not be requested to understand all proofs but you have to be able to decide if the paper is correct or not.
And believe me there are many technical papers that are wrong!

3. So here is where your mathematical training can help. If you have a serious mathematical training you will have the
ability to discern if a paper is correct or not. To try to understand the logic behind the paper and how to implement it.

4. Many times, I hear the comment from students that say : "Once I am in the job I will learn it." Another statement that is wrong. In the job you
will not be given the time to learn anything. You maybe given a paper one day and then in a short period of time you will need to give an answer.
This answer will be also your support when your bosses want to decide if you should continue with the technical job or if they should send
you to another place because you are not good for this technical work. So when you say "Once I am in the job I will learn it." Odds are that
when the time comes your answer will be "Sorry at the university they did not teach me this". At that point, the impression you leave will not be very good.
And the odds that you will be moved to another department start to become higher.


5. The most dangerous part is that in the west most people doing this technical jobs can earn a very good salary (extremely good) but at the same time
they lose their jobs easily if they do not perform. I am not sure how long Japan can stand the policy of "job for life" even if you are not
well prepared for it. But in any case you should try to prepare yourself for the possible change.

6. So if you decide to try in our department be sure that we will ask you to learn serious mathematics so that when you are in the
job you don't run into the above problems unless you decide otherwise.