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Market Review for May 2021

TOPIX ended up on the previous month-end. The market was supported by a pause in the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Japan and expectations for the progress of vaccination program whilst the market was temporarily impacted by a plunge of US IT stocks following a hike in US treasury rate in mid-month. The state of emergency in Japan which was extended by another month to mid-June but it did not affect the market.

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Vaccination and the Japanese Economy

Japan has seen the biggest delay in the roll out of vaccines among the major nations of the world. The government is currently taking various measures to accelerate vaccinations due to a sense of crisis, and it is expected that the vaccine will spread to the general public by the latter half of the year.
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Market Review for April 2021

TOPIX ended down on the previous month-end. The third announcement of the state of emergency in Japan due to resurgence of COVID-19 cases weighed the market. The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Japan has been slow compared with other developed countries due to supply shortage and delays, which depressed the market.

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Press Release

SuMi TRUST Japan Small Cap II Fund - three years of outperformance

SuMi TRUST Japan Small Cap II Fund celebrates three year of outperformance as bet on digital Japan pays off. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management (SuMi TRUST), one of Asia's largest asset management groups with over USD 741 billion AUM*, is celebrating three years of outperformance of its Japan Small Cap II Fund, which launched in April 2018 and has over USD 100million assets under management (AUM).
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Are Japanese Equities in a Bubble?

Some market participants believe that Japanese stocks are in a bubble. However, compared to the bubble period of the late-1980s to 1990, I believe the situation today is very different. By comparing the current market with that of the bubble period (late-1980s to 1990) from multiple perspectives, I would like to forecast the future of Japanese stocks.
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Market Review for March 2021

TOPIX ended up 4.80% on the previous month-end. The expectations for global COVID-19 vaccinations and US additional economic stimulus underpinned the Japanese equity market although concerns over the hike in US interest rates still remained. The Bank of Japan decided at a monetary policy meeting that they would exclude Nikkei 225 ETF from their ETF buying list, which impacted the Nikkei 225 index.

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The Need for a Central Bank Digital Currency

Central Bank Digital Currencys (CBDC) are becoming a hot topic in the market. Although CBDCs still face multiple issues such as the eroding the function of financial intermediaries and countermeasures against cyberattacks, central banks need to secure currency sovereignty through the issuance of CBDC in order to ensure the effectiveness of monetary policy.
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Market Review for February 2021

TOPIX ended up 3.08% on the previous month-end. The expectations for a recovery of company’s earnings and US additional economic stimulus pushed the market higher. The market lost the momentum in the latter half of the month due to the decline of the US equity market following a sharp hike in US bond yield but closed higher than the previous month-end.

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News

Carbon Neutrality in Japan

As the world makes its efforts towards carbon neutrality, Japan also announced its "Green Growth Strategy" in December 2020. In order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the Japanese government will set up a 2 trillion yen fund to encourage companies to invest in the environment, and will raise the ratio of renewable energy to 50- 60% by 2050 (It was 18% in 2019.)