Forget the bubbly promise of AI, the seductiveness of semiconductors and the gunmetal glamour of defence contractors. Japan’s most revealing stock story of last year was to be found in the aisles of a supermarket chain.
The 101 per cent surge in Aeon shares in 2025 highlights what could be called Japan’s “Goldilocks crisis” — a climate of economic, demographic and political threats that is neither too cold to permit any complacency, nor quite hot enough to oblige radical change, but just the right temperature to stoke the fear that a make-or-break moment is coming. Very possibly in 2026.
Aeon’s stock performance made superficial sense. The company made record operating profits in the first half of its financial year, and expanded its low-cost range. But traditional businesses like this (it is one of Japan’s biggest bricks-and-mortar retailers by store count) rarely receive such huge, concentrated votes of investor confidence — even in a year as joyous for Tokyo-listed equities as 2025.