Discover the complexities of Japan’s investment landscape with Karen See, co-manager of the Baillie Gifford Japanese Income Growth fund, as we discuss the market's oscillation between growth and value stocks, the impact of the weakening yen, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s recent corporate governance reforms. Karen offers insightful commentary on the implications for her fund and highlights the emerging opportunities in Japan’s evolving market, from automation and robotics to the accelerating digitalisation trend.

What’s covered in this episode: 

• The rotation from value and growth in Japan
• The impact of the weak yen
• How corporate reforms impact wider markets
• What a weak yen means for corporates and investors
• How corporate reforms are influencing the financial sector
• Continued appeal of SoftBank
• When share buybacks are a bad idea
• Management changes in Japanese companies
• How dividend payouts have evolved in Japan
• The importance of growing dividends
• Why 50% in manufacturing is misleading
• The growing demand for automation 
• The slow trend to digitalisation and digital payments
• How Covid has accelerated cultural change
• What the next 18 months could have in store for investors

More about the fund: 

Launched in July 2016, Baillie Gifford Japanese Income Growth aims to benefit from the improving corporate governance in Japan, as more and more businesses move towards a progressive dividend-paying policy. The managers apply the same well-tested growth investing philosophy and process used by their other Elite Rated funds, combined with a focus on companies with the best dividend growth opportunities.

Learn more on fundcalibre.com

Please remember, we’ve been discussing individual companies to bring investing to life for you. It’s not a recommendation to buy or sell. The fund may or may not still hold these companies at the time of listening. Elite Ratings are based on FundCalibre’s research methodology and are the opinion of FundCalibre’s research team only.