( Financial Times ) -- Bull markets in Japan tend not to last long . Over the past two decades , in an environment of low growth and persistent deflation , the best strategy for globally minded investors has been to get in early and then get out again , once the index has risen about 20 per cent . `` Normally we get our moment in the sun once every 18 months , '' chuckles Jesper Koll , head of equity research at JPMorgan , now in his 27th year of tracking the Tokyo market . Last year was a good one , with a rally in early spring and another still in progress , set off by expectations of more aggressive monetary and fiscal stimulus under Shinzo Abe , the country 's returning prime minister . From the time former premier Yoshihiko Noda called an election in mid-November , to the close of the Tokyo market for the new year holidays , the Nikkei 225 stock average rose by a fifth , outperforming 92 of 94 equity benchmarks around the world . Foreigners led , snapping up a net Y1.8tn ( $ 21bn ) of stocks in the six weeks before Christmas . But as the Japanese market reopens on Friday , investors should not necessarily be eyeing the exits , say strategists . While it is too early to judge whether Mr Abe 's reflationary policies will be successful , they say , the stage he has set -- featuring a weaker yen and a looser central bank -- should support stocks for a while yet . `` Look around the world , '' says Kathy Matsui , chief Japan strategist at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo , paraphrasing a recent comment from one of her clients . `` The US still has its fiscal cliff problem , Europe keeps muddling through and China 's direction under its new leaders is uncertain . '' In that context , `` Japan is the clearest macro game in town '' . More inflows from abroad seem likely , say analysts . For one thing , valuations are inexpensive . Of the five cheapest holdings of Global Special Situations , an Investec Asset Management fund which seeks out companies with low enterprise values but strong cash flows , four are Japanese . `` We 'd never say this is the start of a multiyear bull run but we do know the stocks we own here still look attractive , '' says Mark Wynne-Jones , the fund 's co-manager . The yen is on track to record eight consecutive weeks of losses against the US dollar , which is something it has not achieved since 1989 . A weaker currency should improve sales volumes and profit margins for exporters , which have become the primary engine of extremely cyclical growth in the world 's third-largest economy . But perhaps the strongest reason for continuing to put on the so-called `` Abe trade '' , say analysts , is the desire of the new prime minister to consolidate his hold on power . Last month 's victory in the lower-house elections has given the Liberal Democrat party a two-thirds `` supermajority '' , in tandem with its alliance partner . However , the coalition is short of a majority in parliament 's upper house , where the Democratic Party of Japan still holds sway . If Mr Abe can steer his party to victory in July , when half the upper-house seats are up for grabs , he could , in theory , enjoy an election-free reign stretching out to 2016 . For the next six months , Mr Abe 's government will be `` using all its political power '' to push stocks up and the currency down , says Satoshi Okagawa , senior global markets analyst at SMBC in Singapore . After that , say analysts , gains may be harder to come by . In the absence of real structural reforms to increase Japan 's potential growth rate , the market may not take off like it did between 2003 and 2005 under the administration of Junichiro Koizumi , says Ms Matsui of Goldman Sachs . In the past couple of months Japan has been `` a 'close-your-eyes-and-buy ' market '' , says Sean Darby , chief global strategist at Jefferies in Hong Kong , noting that stocks that had been `` priced for technical insolvency '' , such as Sharp , have rallied the hardest . But most feel that Mr Abe deserves a little faith . Dean Cashman , a Singapore-based director at Eastspring Investments , the Asian asset management arm of Prudential , has seen 14 prime ministers come and go since the early 1990s . He says he runs his $ 80m portfolio by focusing on what companies do `` in spite of politics -- not because of it '' . But with Mr Abe , `` at least you have a party with an agenda and a fairly clear mandate . If nothing else , this opens the door to a better policy making process . '' Jeff Atherton , senior portfolio manager at GLG Partners , which runs one of the biggest Japanese equity funds outside Japan , says it will take months , if not years , to judge the success of Mr Abe 's `` great reflation experiment '' . But for the time being `` it feels much too early to be too cynical , '' he says . © The Financial Times Limited 2013 .
The Nikkei Index has outperformed 92 of 94 stock markets around the world since November . Expectations high of more aggressive with Daniel Abe , the country 's returning prime minister .