The Japanese sector driving market returns over the next ten years

The Japanese sector driving market returns over the next ten years

In a portfolio that is driven by a stockpicking investment process, there is rarely any merit in trying to ascribe thematic reasons to the performance of specific stocks within it.

However, in March and more importantly over longer time periods, it is noteworthy that companies that operate platform, outsourcing and intermediaton-related businesses feature prominently in the contributors to return. Historically, Japanese companies have preferred to keep as much ancillary service-related business in house as possible, probably in order to sustain and protect their own 'way' of doing things. At the same time, they have also proved recalcitrant in embracing the internet to facilitate some of those tasks.  As a result, Japan lags behind the rest of the developed w...