Why Korea Is Becoming the New Japan
South Korea President Lee Jae Myung. Last year, Korea announced its “Corporate Value Up” program, similar to what Japan has done.
Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Thirty five years and five months. That’s how long it took Japan’s Topix index to hit a new high and finally mark the end of the longest bear market in history.
If you’d invested at the bottom, you’d be up 400% (at its worst the index was 80% off its highs). But even if you’d paid attention to value obsessives like me in 2023, you’d be up 65% by now. Not quite as good as the S&P 500 (74%) but really not bad at all.