Japan’s Nikkei stock market is up nearly 30 percent this year, to the highest it has been since the 1990s, when the Land of the Rising Sun was slumping into what was known as the Lost Decade.
Thanks to a newly bolstered and solid economy, a weak currency and low interest rates, Japan now boasts the world’s best-performing major stock market.
And it’s not just Japanese that are jumping on the Nikkei bandwagon. In fact, almost 10 percent of new Nikkei investment is foreign.
All this is creating waves in the Japanese corporate arena.
On demand from shareholders Canon is diversifying its board of directors, Citizen Watch is planning to buy back up to a quarter of its shares and the owner of Uniqlo has promised workers raises of up to 40 percent. Meanwhile, the Tokyo Stock Exchange has implored companies to too practice profit-sharing.
