Japan Is Back, yet Still Far From Its Old Days

Japan Is Back, yet Still Far From Its Old Days
Some people watch at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm, in Tokyo on May 25, 2023. Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo
Law Ka-chung
Updated:
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Commentary

The sudden bull of the Japanese stock market in May called for a thorough review of Japan. Japan used to be excluded from Asia in the past decades, but concentrating on industrialization, its stock market expanded exponentially in the latter half of the 1980s. The recent Japanese stock index (whether Nikkei or Topix) is still below the 1990-year peak. Fair to say, it is not anything outstanding given after the depression, the U.S. stock index took only a quarter century to recover to its 1929 peak. Moreover, Japan’s latest quarterly real GDP YoY growth rate could barely evade consecutive quarters of negligible growth and contraction.

Law Ka-chung
Law Ka-chung
Author
Law Ka-chung is a commentator on global macroeconomics and markets. He has been writing numerous newspaper and magazine columns and talking about markets on various TV, radio, and online channels in Hong Kong since 2005. He covers all types of economics and finance topics in the United States, Europe, and Asia, ranging from macroeconomic theories to market outlook for equities, currencies, rates, yields, and commodities. He has been the chief economist and strategist at a Hong Kong branch of the fifth-largest Chinese bank for more than 12 years. He has a Ph.D. in Economics, MSc in Mathematics, and MSc in Astrophysics.
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