Tokyo a financial centre ? But until when...

[Maciamo]

The Economist :Sayonara

Some observers, such as Alexander Kinmont, a strategist at Nikko Salomon Smith Barney in Tokyo, believe that global securities firms will soon no longer have departments for Japanese equities alone. Why, he asks, would anyone invest in Japan when next-door China is so much more inviting?

Japan's weighting in Morgan Stanley Capital International's world index, a popular benchmark among international institutional investors, has fallen from 31.2% at the end of 1990 to 8.8% today.

A lack of transparency in financial regulation has also reduced Japan's appeal compared with, say, Hong Kong or Singapore. Sudden changes in regulation have not helped. Last year a tightening of short-selling rules left brokers scrambling to adapt to the new regime. The government's habit of propping up stockmarkets from time to time, and its muddled policies in general, make investing unpredictable.

[lineartube]

Hong Kong is in shambles, and Singapore is a strong candidate but don't forget Shanghai. If the Chinese ever go full capitalists, Japan willl be in serious troubles.

This remindes me of a last year wired article: The Hot Zone.

[Tellklaus]

Well, that only applies when China "successfuly" changes into free democracy based capitalist society. Right now China seems to be the new "rising sun" of the century, but nothing can be said for sure. Nobody can perfactly predict the future.