Japan: ignore the rugby and buy the stocks

Japan won't win the Rugby World Cup. But its stockmarket could prove a winner.

Japan in the Rugby World Cup © Getty Images

Japan isn't very good at rugby, but its equity market could prove a winner
(Image credit: Japan in the Rugby World Cup © Getty Images)

"Few folk expect Japan to win the Rugby World Cup that kicked off in Tokyo last Friday," says Ian Cowie in The Times. But the country's unloved stockmarket could well prove a winner. The scrum between American and Chinese trade negotiators has done equities in the Land of the Rising Sun no favours. At just over 22,000, the country's Nikkei 225 benchmark is still far from regaining the 39,000 high it achieved at the height of the 1989 bubble. Shares in the broader Topix index are down by more than 10% over the past year.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.