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Jul 10, 2023Liked by Jesper Koll

Great post Jesper. One other difference between 1989 and today is that capital gains were still untaxed back in the day. As you will recall, there were stock brokers on every street corner and EVERYONE was busy trading shares. Japan's "stock culture" was at its peak back then. It was lost over the next 30 years but seems to be making a comeback. Thanks again for your insights.

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Why use data from June '22, instead of this year's?

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author

Thank you, Ferri-san -- you are absolutely right, and the data are indeed for June 2023, but I mis-labeled the column header....corrected now -- thank you & many cheers ;-j

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Interesting. But: "In fact, I doubt we can find another financial economy where corporate ownership and corporate performance has evolved as dramatically as it has in Japan over the past thirty years."

China, and Russia?

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Perhaps you could have borrowed the title "Back to the Future" for this piece (the time frame would have almost aligned with the movies, too). Seriously, thanks for another great analysis. For someone who started studying Japanese at the height of the bubble economy, your assessment was a trip down memory lane or a "time slip," as the Japanese say. I am curious about the implication of having the BOJ "own more than 50% of all government bonds compared to barely 5% in 1989." That doesn't sound good, but should we be worried for the future of Japan due to this factor? Also, changes to demography in the country during this period seem to foreshadow challenges on many levels. Your take on this?

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