The Japanese economy is steadily growing and may have finally “decoupled” from the US, according to a report in The Guardian:

Senior officials say the economy has become much more stable as it has plugged into the booming economies of Asia, exporting everything from consumer goods to machine tools. But not everyone is convinced, with some worried that as Asia slows in response to lower exports to a recession-hit US, Japan’s exports will suffer, as will its consumers, whose spending will be hit by higher fuel prices.

“Japan is cheap in a way that no other developed markets are,” says Merryn Somerset Webb in Money Week.