Japanese Stock Market Is Getting New Respect

So why do many global investors consider the Japanese stock market a buy?
“Japan is by far one of the cheapest markets in the world,“ said Charles de Vaulx of International Value Advisers, a New York-based investment firm. “It’s so universally hated, yet it might be one of the world’s best-performing markets over the next five years.”
（中略）
Prices are so depressed that, at the end of December, nearly two-thirds of the 1,700 companies listed on the Tokyo exchange’s main section had price-to-book ratios below 1. That means, in effect, if one of those companies was dismantled and sold off for its parts, it would fetch more than its market value.
“These stock prices are saying there’s no hope whatsoever for Japanese companies, and that’s simply not true,“ said Tony Roberts, who manages a $2 billion-dollar Japan fund for London-based Invesco Perpetual. “There are lots of great companies in Japan that add a lot of value,“ he said.

　世界で一番安くなっているのか……。でもそれが逆にチャンスとなっている。