Land of the Rising Unemployment

“Interesting suggestion on Japanese stocks. You recently mentioned a Korean fund that was not trading at a large premium. Is there such a Japanese fund? Can you buy the Nikkei like you can buy “spyders” here? Also, Japanese P-E ratios were sky high in the past, as you pointed out before the dive. Are they reasonable now by US standards?” – Dan Stone

I’m not sure Japanese stocks have much e these days to divide the p by.

EWJ is the symbol of the Japan WEBS (single-country index funds), but they trade with no discount.

Some believe that active management is worth paying for in Japan because a good manager will shun the stocks that are artificially propped up by face-saving old-boy-network cartel arrangements.

TKIOY is the symbol for a Japanese insurance company with a portfolio of stocks that are, theoretically, worth more in the market than TKIOY is. I haven’t researched it well enough to know whether much of that portfolio is the propped-up kind.

I don’t think it would be unwise to make a small long-term bet on Japan (and Korea and Thailand and maybe Malaysia and Russia and, well, lots of other places as well). And maybe average down a year or two from now in case things in Japan get decidedly worse. (One good sign: If you make bets like these, most people will say you’re nuts.)