Investors have reasons for their despair in the Japanese stock market. The giants of Japanese industry – such as Sony, Toyota and Panasonic – expect to incur multibillion dollar losses this year, and with the Nikkei index at lows not seen since 1982, many fund managers have spent a career without any capital growth.
The consumer electronics business, once the standard bearer for Japan’s industrial might, is struggling against the cheaper Korean manufacturing of Samsung and the design skills that produced Apple’s iPod and iPhone. Famous names such as Pioneer, which has pulled out of the TV market, are in trouble.
