As a rule, when investors are told "Japan is cheap" they reply "Yes, yes, but it always is and anyway what is the catalyst?", to which the answer is never "Politics".
After all, prime ministers come and go with alarming regularity (six in the past five years) and while the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) did lose to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in the last general election, this was only the second time since World War II. Politics rarely seems to change in Japan. Power and continuity reside with the bureaucrats, not the elected politicians. Japanese investors generally regard politics as irrelevant. This may change. Prime minister Yoshihiko Noda, having forced the consumption tax increase through parliament, will probably be obliged to call ...
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