Have Japan's economic reforms failed?

Japan was very much flavour of the month in January, despite achieving a return in excess of 30% in sterling terms and far more in yen terms in 2013. The scale of this move reflected very underweight positions by global asset allocators as we entered last year, combined with excitement surrounding the introduction of what has become known as Abenomics. A weakening yen provided the normal shot in the arm for the exporters, leading to a significant rise in earnings: EPS growth topped 70% in 2013, which compares to just 6.5% for the US. As we entered 2014, our sense was that investors we...