Fundamentals good as Japan looks to emerge from its past mistakes

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, but in Japan's case, remembering the ...

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, but in Japan's case, remembering the past is easy - escaping it is the problem. This is the land of the lost decade, where past mistakes refuse to go away. The myth surrounding Japanese equities is they have been a disaster case. The truth is more compelling. The fortunes of the Japanese equity market have tended to be correlated with global economic activity. The last 20 years have seen half a dozen troughs for the global economy followed by periods of sustained growth. In five out of the six periods of recovery, Japanese s...