For the first time in its history, the Tokyo Stock Exchange was forced to suspend all morning trading Tuesday due to what officials said was a computer system malfunction stemming from a trading capacity expansion implemented last month.

TSE officials said they would have to wait for further investigations to determine the exact cause, but added the bourse might seek damages from Fujitsu Ltd., the manufacturer of the system, if it is found liable.

"One of our biggest missions is the operation of a reliable system. We take the incident very gravely; it hurt public trust in the system," Tomio Amano, TSE managing director, said in apologizing for the fiasco at a news conference after the bourse decided to resume trading at 1:30 p.m.