Assignment #7
October 11th
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, has vowed to boost the fortunes of the country’s huge army of part-time workers, as he seeks to reignite the interest of foreign investors in his signature economic reform programme.
Since launching a big effort to haul Japan out of deflation almost four years ago, Mr Abe has forced a much more aggressive stance on monetary easing from the central bank while pushing back plans to raise sales taxes. But he has faced criticism that he achieved too little with respect to his so-called third arrow — removing structural impediments to growth in the world’s third-largest economy.
So far this year foreigners have sold a net $64bn of Japanese equities, according to Tokyo Stock Exchange data, following modest inflows of $23bn and $4bn in 2014 and 2015, respectively. In 2013, with excitement over “Abenomics” at its peak, inflows came to $155bn.