Japan

First State is to launch three new Asian equity funds, following the split of the First State Stewart team earlier this year.

Managers' best ideas from across the globe

Hideo Shiozumi, manager of the £300m Legg Mason IF Japan Equity fund, expects the Nikkei will rise 50% from its current level to as high as 30,000 over the next few years.

Kevin Corrigan, head of fundamental fixed income at Lombard Odier Investment Managers, explains how conventional market cap indices often leave bond investors exposed to the countries and companies that are borrowing the most.

With Japan's corporate governance improvements now underway, Nicholas Weindling, portfolio manager of the JPMorgan Japanese investment trust, looks at how the region can finally begin to close the gap with Europe and the US and improve its tourism industries...

Lucy Macdonald, co-manager of the Brunner investment trust, says investors need balanced portfolio exposure and valuation discipline to take advantage of short-term opportunities.

Tokio Marine Asset Management examines how an increasing number of upcoming IPOs, such as the one for Japan Post, the country's largest bank and insurer, may impact supply-demand dynamics in an already buoyant Japanese stock market.