For investors in Japan's markets this year, it's been a case of one shock after the next in a pattern that might have prepared them well for the era of Donald Trump and his reputation for the unexpected.
The yen, Topix and the government bond market — the largest outside the U.S. — led reactions to global shocks in 2016, from January's China-fueled turmoil to the British exit jolt to Trump's surprise victory in the U.S. presidential election. There were also domestically manufactured shocks: the Bank of Japan's adoption of negative interest rates, then the shift to yield-curve control.
While risks in 2017 span a China hard landing or another Euro-region crisis flare-up to a super-sized U.S. economic upsurge, the historic market shifts this year may be hard to repeat.
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