After hosting a gathering of the world’s biggest investors in Tokyo last week, BlackRock founder Larry Fink compared the current global interest in Japan to the time when the world was fascinated by the country’s economic “miracle” that lasted through the 1980s.
The words were music to the ears of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who had spent the last few weeks trying to convince executives of Blackstone, KKR and sovereign wealth funds like Norges Bank to allocate more money to Japan.
With stock prices trading near a 33-year high, the economy out of deflation, the global uncertainty in China and corporate governance reforms of the past decade finally bearing fruit, it’s not surprising that fund managers who had shown no interest in Japan are suddenly flocking to Tokyo.