Investec's Mundy: Top eight questions on Japan answered

8 QUESTIONS ON JAPAN

Investec's head of contrarian investments Alastair Mundy wonders whether Japanese equities will be a winning play this year.

•Japanese equities are now coming up in reasonable numbers on our ‘out-of-favour' screen for our global portfolios •Based on our analysis, we believe Japanese equities are cheap both relative to their history and to other international markets •We see signs that Japan is finally changing for the better from a corporate governance perspective; cross-holdings have come down significantly, companies are showing increasing willingness to cut costs and reduce bloated staff numbers, and are increasingly demonstrating an increased focus on balance sheet efficiency Q. Japan? Not again. ...