From the editor
Why we're still keen on Japan
I asked James Ferguson, who used to work with me in Japan, if he thought the election results there would make any difference. "Don't be silly," he said.
He's not alone in his pessimism. For most of the world's investors Japan is now, and is likely to remain, a dead loss. For James, the main worry is not that the new government won't make things better, but that they might make things worse.
How? By following through on promises to cut government spending when government spending has been the only thing keeping the Japanese economy even slightly above water for the last decade.
I have some sympathy with this view, but I am – unusually for me – a bit more optimistic.
• Read the full editor's letter here: Why we're still keen on Japan
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