A weak yen, a new governor of the Bank of Japan announcing a massive programme of quantitative easing, with the aim of ending deflation, and a rise of 2% of gross domestic product in government spending have caused a dramatic reassessment of Japan.

The initial response was very encouraging, with the stock market rising by 83% between October 12 last year and April 22, 2013. But since then concerns have surfaced, the stock market which had fallen back 15% by June 3 has since been volatile and the 10-year bond yield has risen from a low of 0.45% on April 4 this year to a high 0.94% on May 29, before retreating slightly.