Jupiter's Somerville on corporate profitability in a changing Japan

After a recent trip to Japan, Jupiter's Simon Somerville, manager of the Japan Income fund, considers the outlook for corporate profitability, and how the country has changed four years on from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

The Tohoku earthquake seems a long time ago, but it was only four years ago that, with Fukushima Daiichi exploding (only 140 miles from Tokyo), concern grew over the future of Tokyo and hence Japan. In that four years, much has changed in Japan, Abe and the LDP swept into power twice with a mandate to change Japan, Tokyo won the right to host the 2020 Olympics, and corporate governance is improving finally. Not everything has changed, the Japanese economy has continued to struggle to grow, funding scandals carry on in politics, the East Coast of Tohoku remains a building site, and Fukush...