How hot is the Japanese stock market? Last week alone, foreign investors bought a total of 1.18 trillion yen (about 7.7 billion U.S. dollars) in Japanese stocks, the most since 2013.

The Japanese market has become the darling of the world, and capital has poured into Japan intensively. As the Japanese stock market recovers, the Japanese financial industry has created more jobs, and investors' demand for an in-depth understanding of the Japanese market is increasing.

In order to meet the needs of customers, Wall Street's major banks have gone all over the sea to show their magical powers.

Citigroup hires Japanese analysts directly to communicate face-to-face with clients. Kota Ezawa, head of Japan research at Citigroup, said overseas marketing activities by analysts in Citigroup's Japan securities division will increase more than fivefold in 2023 compared with 2022, and this momentum will continue in 2024.

Citigroup also organized a global "Japan Day" event. At these events, Citi's Japan heads, analysts, strategists and traders discuss investment opportunities from multiple angles, from equities to fixed income to FX.

Not to be outdone, Morgan Stanley's joint venture brokerage firm with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group directly sent more than 30 of its Tokyo-based researchers to Hong Kong and Singapore for a week-long visit last month. The purpose of this visit is to meet customers' needs for a deep understanding of the Japanese market through face-to-face communication between the company's stock analysts and economists and customers, while at the same time introducing its powerful research team to customers and shortening the distance with customers. .

Bank of America launched a new quarterly conference call in January aimed at institutional investors located in the United States, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. During the conference call, Japanese analysts share their best stock investment advice. The media quoted a Bank of America spokesperson as saying that the conference call was well received by investors.

As Japan emerges from its "lost thirty years", Japan's economic recovery is bringing new energy to the careers of analysts and bond traders in the financial industry, while also creating more jobs for brokerages and other research service providers. Business.

Institutional investors seek high-quality market research to help them make more informed investment decisions. Japanese institutional investors are expected to use more research service providers this year, after having used fewer research service providers each year since 2019, according to a report by consulting firm Coalition Greenwich.

Tarun Hariharan, research manager at the firm, said: "We will closely watch whether this recovery trend translates into increased trading spending, thereby boosting the revenues of brokerages and other research service providers."

Hideyasu Ban, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said: "There is growing interest in re-understanding Japanese companies and markets. However, it is important to sustain this interest and translate into actual investment growth after investors complete the initial learning phase. The Japanese market itself needs to continue to demonstrate its value and attractiveness.”