The Contrarian Investor: Why investing in Japan requires patience

JAPAN

Japan. Five letters that immediately conjure up a fire storm of debate and vitriol. In fact I urge you to play a word association game with your colleagues.

Ask them to say the five words that immediately come into their mind whenever they utter the name. I tried it recently and the following tripped out almost unconsciously: Capitulation, Hopeless, Cheap (or at least its shares are, not the local hotels), Tsunami and Debt. I tried to get in ageing and debt spiral but was disallowed by my investment therapist. My other little psychological trick is what I call Myth and Reality. The Myth bit of the exercise consists of identifying one commonly used myth that everyone talks about in relation to the country. The Reality is the last actual story...