Deconstructing Japanese Equity Performance

Over the last last month, Japan has been the worst performing country in the MSCI World index, down on average 5.25%.

MSCI Country Performance


Underneath the surface, the distribution of sector performance shows that while the export-oriented industries have performed poorly recently, the non-export industries have escaped most of the damage.

MSCI Japan Sector Performance


This puts a premium on stock selection as there are only a combined 45 companies in the MSCI Japan health care and consumer staples sectors.

Number of Japanese Companies in MSCI World Index