Will 'totally undiscovered' stocks drive Japan returns higher?

Columbia Threadneedle's Sarah Williams argues the real value in Japan may now lie in stocks which are off the beaten track.

Japan's corporate financial year has ended. When earnings results are announced in a few weeks' time, they will be shown to exceed the previous peak in 2008 for the first time since the global financial crisis. The recovery process has taken much longer in Japan than other developed economies and was significantly interrupted by the earthquake in 2011 and subsequent closure of Japan's nuclear facilities. The strong earnings recovery, coupled with heightened and well-covered expectations of change in corporate governance practices, has led to outperformance by the Japanese market (even...