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News

Market Review for January 2021

Date: 1st February 2021

TOPIX ended up 0.23% on the previous month-end. In the first half of the month the Japanese equity market rallied on news that the Democrats had won majority control of Congress, and with this the expectations for additional US stimulus pushed the market higher. However, market sentiment was dampened by the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Japan and turmoil in the US equity market around the GameStop share surge caused by retail investors at the end of the month. As a result, the market closed almost flat.

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News

Corporate Reforms under COVID-19

Naoya Oshikubo, Senior Economist

Date: 25th January 2021

Business performance of Japanese companies is clearly bottoming out due to self-reliant reforms implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic as the economy gradually picks up. Earnings and share prices had been affected by the sensitivity of their business structure to COVID-19, but going forward, performance will depend on their efforts to proactively make changes.
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News

Market Review for December 2020

Date: 4th January 2021

The Japanese equity market for December rose and TOPIX ended up higher at 2.84%. The market favoured the news that US president Trump had signed the unemployment benefits package in the latter half of the month whilst the market struggled to find a direction between vaccine distribution and concerns over domestic economic activities evoked by the rise of the number of Covid-19 cases in Japan.

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News

The Endgame Outlook for the Japanese Market in 2021

Naoya Oshikubo, Senior Economist

Date: 16th December 2020

This month's commentary covers the following as move towards year end 1) Asian countries will lead the global economic recovery. 2) The Japanese economy will recover supported by rebound of consumption 3) The BOJ’s accommodative policy as well as expansionary fiscal policy will continue. 4) We will see the Nikkei 225 testing 29,000 by end-2021
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News

The Digitalization of Japan

Naoya Oshikubo, Senior Economist

Date: 18th November 2020

Japan faces enormous challenges with its declining and aging population. In order to improve economic efficiency and raise the potential growth rate, it must promote digitalization through innovation. While digitalization is the pillar of “Suganomics”, in the short term, the government has to develop infrastructure towards a digital society.
Skyline of Tokyo at night
News

The Suga Administration and the Desired “4th Arrow”

Naoya Oshikubo, Senior Economist

Date: 20th October 2020

Prime Minister Suga’s near term policies will focus on tackling COVID-19, but his basic policies will follow where Abe left off. However, Suga faces numerous challenges that include income disparity and distribution policy. Suga’s economic policies must not counterpose his growth strategy with his income and distribution policy. Rather we would expect his income and distribution policy to reinforce his growth strategy. We hope to see the Suga Administration fully support and enforce these policies under the “4th Arrow”.
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News

Economic Outlook for FY 2020/2021

Date: 25th September 2020

Japan's real GDP growth rate for April-June 2020 fell 28.1% QoQ annualized, the largest drop ever recorded. The impact of the measures against COVID-19 taken in Japan and overseas to forcibly suspend economic activity has directly hit both domestic and external demand.
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Insights

Extra! from SuMi TRUST

Date: 2nd September 2020

A quick review of Prime Minister Abe’s resignation and the implications for the Japanese Stock Market