Frenzied foreign buying of Japanese stocks since December has provoked a bout of nostalgia for the heady days of late 2005, when overseas institutions ramped up the Nikkei by 39 per cent in just six months.
In fact net buying in December 2006, at Y1,677bn, trumped even the peak in 2005. January buying was almost as high, and the rush continued into mid-February, boosting the Nikkei 225 by 11 per cent in under three months.
