Outlook on Japan in 2024

Lazard's Outlook series provides a forward-looking view, over the short, medium, and/or long term, of asset classes, sectors, regions, or countries from the view of Lazard Asset Management. In this edition, LAM portfolio managers share their outlook for Japan in 2024. 

Summary

Two themes became more prominent in Japan over 2023 and, in our view, will be driving factors for equities going forward: corporate governance improvement and the shift to inflation from deflation.

• Governance progress has accelerated with the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s policy initiative over the past year,
  and we have already seen market-friendly changes in management behavior.
• In our view, the Bank of Japan is likely to begin normalizing policy in April 2024 if spring wage negotiations show that Japanese inflation is firmly rooted, as we expect.
• Our medium- and long-term outlooks for Japanese equities remain very bright, and we would view a near-term
  market pullback in Japan as an opportunity.

Click here to read our Outlook on Japan for 2024.