Deputy Chief Economist

Sharmila Whelan

Independent and original Asian investment research

Aletheia Capital

Aletheia Capital (HK) Ltd. (previously known as Asianomics) combines the extensive knowledge of its experienced team with technology and regulatory changes to disrupt Global Markets business in Asia. The firm is completely independent with no conflicts of interest either on Investment Banking advisory or Capital Markets execution.

Macroeconomics

Concerns about Asian external debt sustainability and corporate foreign currency leverage are overblown. If investors are worried about the EM6 group of countries ((Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Turkey and South Africa) it is with good reason. Asia is a different story altogether. Regional fundamentals are strong. There are a few warning flags but none that suggest that an external debt crisis is about to engulf the region.Stress testing for vulnerability – Summary resultsWe start off…

Concerns about Asian external debt sustainability and corporate foreign currency leverage are overblown. If investors are worried about the EM6 group of countries ((Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Turkey and South Africa) it is with good reason. Asia is a different story altogether. Regional fundamentals are strong. There are a few warning flags but none that suggest that an external debt crisis is about to engulf the region.Stress testing for vulnerability – Summary resultsWe start off…

EM External Debt Sustainability Scoreboard - Asia Stands Out

Japan-China trade relations – Reaching a pivoting pointMr Trump’s trade war on the rest of the world is uniting friends and foes. This week Japan and the EU signed the world’s largest bilateral trade pact, creating a trade zone covering almost a third of global GDP. Japan like the EU is realising that the US under the leadership of the maverick Mr Trump is no longer a reliable trading partner. The EU-Japan bilateral trade agreement (which still needs to be ratified) is potentially interesting…

Japan-China trade relations – Reaching a pivoting pointMr Trump’s trade war on the rest of the world is uniting friends and foes. This week Japan and the EU signed the world’s largest bilateral trade pact, creating a trade zone covering almost a third of global GDP. Japan like the EU is realising that the US under the leadership of the maverick Mr Trump is no longer a reliable trading partner. The EU-Japan bilateral trade agreement (which still needs to be ratified) is potentially interesting…

We are overweight Japanese equities and a lot more optimistic than the government and Japanese companies about the outlook for growth and corporate earnings. Expect both to surprise on the upside. Like elsewhere in Asia, Japanese policymakers are worried about the impact of rising trade tensions on economic growth. Last week the Cabinet Office lowered its real GDP forecast for FY18 to 1.5% from 1.8% in January. Certainly the yen has weakened against the US dollar and the stock market having…

We are overweight Japanese equities and a lot more optimistic than the government and Japanese companies about the outlook for growth and corporate earnings. Expect both to surprise on the upside. Like elsewhere in Asia, Japanese policymakers are worried about the impact of rising trade tensions on economic growth. Last week the Cabinet Office lowered its real GDP forecast for FY18 to 1.5% from 1.8% in January. Certainly the yen has weakened against the US dollar and the stock market having…

Japanese Firms - Growing Resilience, Overweight Equities

It was a given that the Quebec G7 Summit was going to be tense, possibly acrimonious. But it turned unexpectedly ugly following Mr Trump’s highly personalised attack on Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Prime Minister which culminated in the US withdrawing from the joint G7 communique. Mr Trump managed in the short time he deigned to attend the summit to further isolate America’s allies and continued to deliver a barrage of insults from Singapore via his favourite medium of communication - Twitter…

It was a given that the Quebec G7 Summit was going to be tense, possibly acrimonious. But it turned unexpectedly ugly following Mr Trump’s highly personalised attack on Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Prime Minister which culminated in the US withdrawing from the joint G7 communique. Mr Trump managed in the short time he deigned to attend the summit to further isolate America’s allies and continued to deliver a barrage of insults from Singapore via his favourite medium of communication - Twitter…

Trade Wars - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

The Board Director Training Institute of Japan

BDTI CEO, Proposer of  Japan's Governance Code, The Board Director Training Institute of Japan

Nicholas Benes

BDTI CEO, Proposer of  Japan's Governance Code

The Board Director Training Institute of Japan (BDTI), a non-profit Japanese “public interest” organization certified by the government, was established in 2009 by experts and opinion leaders active in academic and business circles. BDTI’s mission is to increase trust between corporations and the public, and facilitate the safe, sustainable and ethical development of the Japanese economy and Japanese companies, by improving corporate governance and accelerating the spread of effective management methods.  We believe that director training is the key to doing these things while also enhancing corporate value.

True policy change takes a long time... particularly here in Japan.  But the flip side is that when reform finally does come to Japan, it may be implemented surprisingly quickly.  As this 17-year old article shows, many of the corporate governance reforms that Japan has put in place over the past five years were obvious for a long time, and were in fact proposed and discussed to some extent...but until a focus on fiscal pressures and national debt greater than 200% of GDP forced the government to focus on the need for productivity enhancement, not much happened until 2013-2014.

True policy change takes a long time... particularly here in Japan.  But the flip side is that when reform finally does come to Japan, it may be implemented surprisingly quickly.  As this 17-year old article shows, many of the corporate governance reforms that Japan has put in place over the past five years were obvious for a long time, and were in fact proposed and discussed to some extent...but until a focus on fiscal pressures and national debt greater than 200% of GDP forced the government to focus on the need for productivity enhancement, not much happened until 2013-2014.  

”Japan’s Coming Shareholder Revolution” (Written in 2001 ! ) - Perspective from the Past

Japan

iShares MSCI Japan ETF is an exchange-traded fund incorporated in the USA. The ETF's objective seeks to provide investment results that correspond to the performance of the Japanese market, as measured by the MSCI Japan Index. The ETF invests in a representative sample of index stocks in a variety of sectors using a market cap weighted "portfolio sampling" technique.

iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ US)

EM External Debt Sustainability Scoreboard - Asia Stands Out

Concerns about Asian external debt sustainability and corporate foreign currency leverage are overblown. If investors are worried about the EM6...

Sharmila Whelan

Japan- China Relations - At Pivot Point?

Japan-China trade relations – Reaching a pivoting pointMr Trump’s trade war on the rest of the world is uniting friends and foes. This week Japan...

Sharmila Whelan

Japanese Firms - Growing Resilience, Overweight Equities

We are overweight Japanese equities and a lot more optimistic than the government and Japanese companies about the outlook for growth and corporate...

Sharmila Whelan

Trade Wars - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

It was a given that the Quebec G7 Summit was going to be tense, possibly acrimonious. But it turned unexpectedly ugly following Mr Trump’s highly...

Sharmila Whelan

”Japan’s Coming Shareholder Revolution” (Written in 2001 ! ) - Perspective from the Past

True policy change takes a long time... particularly here in Japan. But the flip side is that when reform finally does come to Japan, it may be...

Nicholas Benes