Forget what you’ve heard about Japan

It’s not just another false dawn in the land of the rising sun, argues Rathbones’ Ed Smith

Click through the slides below to find out why

Strong profit growth has been supported by a healthy underlying economy – Japan also boasts the strongest growth of GDP per capita of any major developed country over the five-plus years that Abe has been in office.

This is in no small part due to the fact that Japan is also one of the few countries to have embarked on a thoughtful and wide-reaching series of structural reforms.

Many foreign investors have lost patience with these reform efforts, which take time to filter through to company profits and other measures of shareholder value.

But we see this as an opportunity, says Smith.