It’s the politics, stupid, The mantra for Japan’s sickly stock market is getting louder. Foreign and local economists, brokers, investors, restaurant owners, barmen and taxi drivers, Peter Douglas, head of GFIA, a hedge fund consultancy, reels off the list after a recent trip to Tokyo. “They are all spitting blood in a very un-Japanese fashion.”

“The consensus right now is that the reason why the market is falling and Japan appears to be stuck is down to Japanese politicians.”