Japan  

Case for investing in Japanese equities

This article is part of
Guide to Japanese equities

Given also that there are structural buyers of the market - large companies doing buy-backs, the government pension fund and the Bank of Japan itself, this can support the market, according to Mr Black.

Diversification and risk

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Nick Peters, multi-asset portfolio manager for Fidelity International, says the conversation has to start with "the benefits of diversifying across regional equity markets".

He says: "Academic studies have shown over the long-term, the worst losses of global equity portfolios over five to 10-year horizons have tended to be smaller than portfolios investing in just a client's home market.

"Investing in Japanese equities should be done on the basis of what benefits the market can offer an investor and the advantages of diversifying your equity exposure."

Miton's Mr Jane says Japan is one of the least correlated markets with the rest of the world and therefore offers equity exposure with less risk, so is attractive from a portfolio construction point of view.

Active management is also important when it comes to avoiding macro risk, according to Alex Blake, client manager on the Baillie Gifford Japanese equities team.

He says: "We are bottom-up stock pickers. As such, the returns we can generate for clients are driven by the fundamentals of the businesses we own, not macro factors.

"Over time we have identified high-quality businesses with attractive growth prospects, which have grown against a challenging industry backdrop."