Land of the rising stock market: a look at Japanese equities

The 20% rally in the Japanese stock market we have witnessed since mid-November could just be the start. While a short term pull-back can be expected from overbought levels, exposure to Japanese equities, while hedging the currency, looks one of the best risk-adjusted trades across any asset class. Despite all the politically induced excitement over the past six weeks, owning Japanese equities has proved a deeply frustrating experience since the market bottomed in March 2009. Since then, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100 have broadly doubled. The Topix has returned a pedestrian 30%. Even Europ...