Investor Nation
The ACCJ Financial Services Forum sets out a three-pronged strategy for stronger market policies in its latest white paper.
Japan Surprises 2022
With the Year of the Tiger well underway, here is Jesper Koll's annual list of Japan Surprises. These are not baseline scenarios or probability-ranked results of quantitative models but, rather, some of the things that Jesper says keep him up at night thanks to that nagging suspicion that some events could change everything. And yes, there is plenty of room for positive surprises from Japan in 2022.
This Time Is Different
Why won’t Japan slide back into another lost decade? What’s different this time? Economist Jesper Koll explains how three fundamental forces, changed from negative to positive, will make the difference.
Japan as 196th
One hundred ninety-sixth out of 196 countries. Just behind North Korea. That’s how Japan ranked in 2019 when the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) measured the cumulative stock of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) as a share of gross domestic product (GDP).1 FDI ranges from foreign companies setting up new facilities to them buying domestic companies. What a shocking result considering the 20 years Tokyo has spent trying to increase its cumulative stock of FDI. Unless policymakers understand why past efforts have failed, Tokyo is unlikely to realize the new goal it announced in June: to hike inward FDI to 12 percent of GDP by 2030.
Misplaced Pressure
The government of newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has elevated national security to a top priority by establishing the new position of economic security minister. Jesper Koll explains why the ministry could end up making it more difficult and cumbersome for global investors to buy Japanese companies and trade with Japanese suppliers.
Make Japan a Startup Nation
If you had two minutes with the new prime minister, to give your best-shot advice on how to create a better economic future for Japan, what would you say? From a macro perspective, by far the best answer is: Do whatever you can to make Japan a startup nation. But where does economic growth come from? Not from the stuff politicians and technocrats talk about most of the time—e.g., monetary, fiscal, or trade policy. And importantly, it doesn’t come from population growth. It comes from entrepreneurs.