DPJ govt a stimulus for economy amid Japan's employment crisis

Over the course of the year, the Japanese stock market has continued to rise from its March low point, helped by a general improvement in investors' risk appetite and the release of more positive economic data.

By October, the Topix Index had reached its highest level in a year, helped by better-than-expected corporate results and a rebound in GDP following four quarters of economic contraction. But the strengthening of the yen against the US dollar coupled with uncertainty about how the newly elected Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) regulates the financial system has weighed on stock market returns since October. Small- and mid-cap stocks, which are mostly domestic-oriented and therefore not adversely affected by the stronger yen, have remained firm. Indeed, the TSE Mothers index, which follows...