Nervous investors miss out on Japan's biggest stockmarket rise in 26 years

British investors pulled £145m from Japanese funds in September. But they are missing out – Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained 15% in November, its best monthly showing since 1994.

People in Tokyo
Next year is expected to be a good one for household spending
(Image credit: © Naoki Nishimura/AFLO/Alamy)

Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga has announced a new ¥73.6trn (£532bn) stimulus package, the country’s third so far this year. About ¥40trn (£289bn) will go towards furlough programmes, hospitals and incentives for green investment. The stimulus takes the total spent on the country’s virus to 14% of GDP.

Japan has so far dodged the worst of the pandemic, but the latest wave is its most serious, says William Pesek for the Asia Times. Japan has a serious “pre-existing condition” – about 30% of the population are aged over 65 and that proportion is rising. The debt-to-GDP ratio is more than 230% and is climbing towards 250%. “Massive national debt, a plunging population, and now, a resurgent pandemic… talk about a grim convergence.”

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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.