Economics
Abenomics Pays Fat Dividends as Stocks Trounce Bonds for Yields
- Dividends, share buybacks rose 76 percent last fiscal year
- Topix ROE of 8.7 percent still trailing global average
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policies are strengthening the appeal of Japan’s bruised stock market, as equities promise the best payouts relative to bonds in 2 1/2 years.
While global equity prices tumbled, Abe cajoled companies into boosting returns to shareholders. That combined to increase the estimated dividend yield of companies in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average to 1.41 percentage points more than the 10-year government note yield on Aug. 25, the widest gap since Dec. 12, 2012, data compiled by Bloomberg show. A similar spread in the U.S. is 0.02 percentage point.