US, European and Asian Investors in the Japanese Stock Market

Abstract

This paper investigates aggregate buying and selling by foreign investors, subdivided into US, European and Asian investors, in the Japanese stock market over the period 1981–2004. The results indicate that in the late 1990s US investors began to take more active positions than other foreign investors, and traded with good timing from the middle of the 1990s. US investors were also generally better than other investors when completing net purchases. While European and Asian investors also traded with good timing, other foreign investors generally did not net purchase or sell with good timing.