Keep faith with Japan

Japan's banking system is on the mend and the stock market is set to take off, says James Ferguson. Here he outlines the best ways to invest.

Japan's banking system is being fixed, and now its stockmarket is set for a boom, says James Ferguson.

A growing number of commentators gleefully await Japan's fiscal apocalypse. Look at today's situation and you might think they have a point. Government debt reached a staggering 220% of GDP in 2012, according to the OECD, a wealthy nation think tank. Deflation has remained intractable for well over a decade. And as the population ages the number of working-age Japanese is forecast to fall by 40% between now and 2050.This will reduce the ratio of working-age people to the elderly from 2.8 in 2009, to just 1.3 in 2050 (Britain is closer to four but is set to halve in the next two decades).

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Explore More

James Ferguson qualified with an MA (Hons) in economics from Edinburgh University in 1985. For the last 21 years he has had a high-powered career in institutional stock broking, specialising in equities, working for Nomura, Robert Fleming, SBC Warburg, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Mitsubishi Securities.