Japan

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.

The seven key considerations to bear in mind for AA investments

Japan's newly elected Democratic Party has agreed a ¥7.2trn (£48bn) stimulus package to prevent the country's economy sliding back into recession.

With the end of the recession in sight, investors in the US need to be wary of the example of Japan's markets in the 1990s and beware of broad-based economic deflation

Aberdeen Asset Management's Hugh Young continues to be heavily underweight Japan, despite the country enjoying its fastest period of growth for over two years.

Sector's stocks continue to underperform developed market peers, though top-decile managers find returns with focus shift

The Asian hedge fund industry has changed dramatically in the last decade - from small players with limited means of hedging to a powerhouse offering a range of strategies

Global economies are showing tentative signs of improvement, but not sufficient yet to encourage policymakers to materially alter their highly accommodative monetary and fiscal initiatives.

Japan's economy was one of the first to officially leave the recession and is now expected to grow faster than other developed nations, according to IMF forecasts.

Just as there is a two-speed Europe, it often seems, economically, Asia moves at two different speeds.