Abe Lures Back Foreign Stock Investors

Headline

Abe needs “celebrity endorsement” provided by rising stock prices since his push on “collective self-defense” lowered his approval rating by 4 points.

Abstract

Foreign investors return to Japan in June, but on much smaller scale than in 2013

Government-controlled pension funds appears to have bought in June, helping to revive stock prices

Japanese households sold

Abe needs “celebrity endorsement” provided by rising stock prices since his push on “collective self-defense” lowered his approval rating by 4 points

The gap between his approval and disapproval rating is steadily eroding; in the Kyodo poll, the margin of approval was down to 7 points

While Nikkei 225 is up in the last seven weeks, it is still within the trading range of the past year and no higher than in May 2014; meanwhile the US S&P 500 is up 20% in the same period

In another example of the lameness of “Third Arrow 2.0,” the very program that Abe has promised to expand in the name of getting people used to immigrant workers is repeatedly labeled a violator of human rights and a “human trafficker” by the US State Department; the Japanese Bar Association has called for abolition of the program