Are Japanese reforms working?

Japan is attempting to resurrect its economy, and bringing with it more tourists and eagerly awaited corporate governance reform, says Genzo Kimura, economist at SuMi TRUST

Thanks to a quantitative easing (QE) programme by the governor of the Bank of Japan, Haruhiko Kuroda, Japan is on the cusp of escaping deflation. The BoJ has extended its timeline to achieve the 2% inflation target, from spring 2015 to the early half of 2016. Many investors had expected the BoJ would provide additional stimulus when they postponed this target, but this was not the case. The bank is already purchasing, at an annual pace, ¥80trn government bonds, ¥3trn ETFs, and ¥90bn J-REITs. Annual new bond issuance by the Japanese government is likely to be less than ¥40trn in 2015 – ¥...