Tokyo rose one place to 19th place in the Global Financial Centers Index released last week, but is still far behind Singapore and Hong Kong, which rank third and fourth, The Japan Times reported on March 25.
In Asia, other cities with a higher ranking are Seoul, Shenzhen and Beijing. However, in sectors such as trading, investment management and banking, Tokyo is outperforming its overall position in the index.
Japan is attracting increasing interest from foreign asset managers as the government seeks to transform Tokyo into a major financial center.
“People feel that Japan may be emerging from deflation and that there may be an economic transformation.Shigeru Ariizumi, deputy minister of international affairs at the Financial Services Agency, said in an interview. — How can we dispel the negative bias towards Japan?”
According to Ariizumi, the desire to change Japan’s image has the full support of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his administration. The growing number of foreign workers, as well as the growing proportion of women and older workers in the economy, are ways the country is trying to overcome the challenge of an aging population, a problem that is not unique to Asia and Japan, said. .
The country is stepping up efforts to remove language barriers, Ariizumi said, highlighting the Japan Exchange Group’s policy requiring major listed companies to also disclose their financial results in English starting in April 2025.
“We will do everything we can” to make Japan more attractive, he said, adding that he sees more private equity firms and hedge funds operating in the market.
Confidence is growing that the world’s fourth-largest economy is emerging from decades of falling prices and slow growth, bolstering Kishida’s efforts to bolster the country’s global presence. Last week, the Bank of Japan ended the world’s last remaining negative interest rates, underscoring policymakers’ confidence in the final phase of the country’s recovery.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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