Investors have been underweight Japan for decades, but conditions on the ground have changed meaningfully. Amid improving fundamentals and governance reforms, we believe it’s time to close the gap and take advantage of the attractive opportunity among small-to-mid cap Japanese companies.
Japan has been stuck in a low growth, low inflation (and at times, deflationary) environment.
Most global equity managers today are underweight Japan.
Global stocks and bonds are both expensive. U.S. stocks are trading at particularly elevated valuations with the CAPE ratio standing at 35x (vs. a 10-year average of less than 27x) while the Barclays Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate index offered a negative real yield at the end of February.
