The Japanese produce many thngs that people all over the world want to buy - cars, audio equipment, damn fine cameras (quoting Dr. Strangelove), drugs, presion plastic moldings and assemblies for laser toner cartridges, video games, anime, specialty chemicals, semiconductor lithography equipment, etc.
They are also very innovative and creative scientists, especially if they can get their managers off theier back. Blue lasers and multi-colored LEDs, and lately "gummy metal" among the many recent innovations.
The P/Es on many of their companies, like Nissan, Toyota, Honda, etc. are very low.
Many of the smaller companies are valued near book value and are growing > 5% per year.
Japan has an educated, hard working population, with a very small underclass. Biggest long term problems are bad bank loans and an aging population. Biggest infrastructure shortcomming is the high price of high speed interconnect, but that's easy to fix for a densely populated country. Lots of roads, bridges and an extensive rail network.
Having China as a customer will accelerate and insure the Japan recovery. Also, demand from China is spreading prosperity over most of East Asia, which also expands markets for Japan.
On a technical basis, if we look at a long term chart of the Nikkei, there's a bottom level of about 15,000. We are well under that level now.
I'm drawn to invest in Japan because 1) they are WAY undervalued, both stock prices and currency. 2) They seem to be recovering and values are going up.
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As for limiting justice, both Britian and France seem to be able to strike an appropriate balance most of the time. |
