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Insights

The End of “Suganomics”

On 3rd September 2021, Prime Minister Suga announced at a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) board members that he will not run for the LDP presidency, with the election scheduled to take place on 29th September.
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News

Market Review for August 2021

TOPIX ended up on the previous month-end. Solid Japanese corporate quarterly earnings results suggested Japan is on track to a recovery from the impact of the pandemic and this pushed the market higher. Although the market temporarily declined on the declaration of the fourth state of emergency following a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases, the news of the US bipartisan infrastructure bill passing in the Senate underpinned the market.

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News

The Wave of Greening is Coming to Japan

The wave of greening is rushing into Japan as the country rapidly catches up with rest of the world. In its latest green growth strategy and goals towards carbon neutrality by 2050, the Government of Japan has set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 46% by 2030 (as compared to 2013 levels).
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News

Market Review for July 2021

TOPIX ended down on the previous month-end. Concerns over an increase of COVID 19 variant cases capped the upside of the Japanese equity market throughout the month. Whilst a rise in US equity market and a solid Japanese economic statistics supported the market, the announcement of the fourth state of emergency in major cities in Japan following the spread of COVID 19 due to the variant, shaved investors’ sentiment and fuelled uncertainty over the outlook for the recovery of economic activities.

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Skyline of Tokyo at night
News

Foresight in Japanese Politics

With the House of Representatives general election scheduled after the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, uncertainty looms over the politics. The future of the Suga administration hangs on the success of the Olympic Games, and the successful roll out of vaccinations while keeping the number of infected in check.
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Press Release

Participation in the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management Co., Ltd. (Representative Director and President: Yoshio Hishida; hereinafter "SuMi TRUST") is pleased to announce that it has become a signatory to the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, a new initiative launched in December 2020 by global asset managers that seeks to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of investee companies to net zero by 2050.

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News

Market Review for June 2021

TOPIX ended up on the previous month-end. The Japanese equity market was driven by the US equity market throughout the month. At the beginning of the month, the market rose on the good progress of the vaccination program in Japan. The market plunged after an earlier than expected tapering was hinted at by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) followed by a sharp fall in the US equity market. However, the market gradually offset the fall as US interest rate stopped rising towards the month-end.

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Asakusa
Press Release

Sakigake High Alpha - Japan Thematic Growth Fund Marks Three Years of Outperformance

This month marks the three years anniversary of its Sakigake High Alpha Japan Thematic Growth fund, which launched in June 2018 and has over USD 42million assets under management (AUM)**. Since its inception, the fund has outperformed its TOPIX benchmark index by +10.44% on a cumulative basis, returning 29.72% against the TOPIX’s 19.28%***.
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News

Japan's Governance Code Revision

In June, a revised Corporate Governance Code was released. The Code was revised taking the reform of the Japanese stock market into consideration. It will go into effect in April next year, with the top-tier listings going into the Prime Market corresponding to the current First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange(TSE).