"It’s mainly America’s fault," says a Tokyo analyst with a smile as he walks to the elevator after a meeting. The US is often unjustly invoked as the cause of problems in Japan but this time it’s hard to argue with the assessment. On January 22 the Nikkei 225 stock average plummeted 5.7% to 12753, prompted largely by fears of a US recession. It was a depressing year for Japanese stocks in 2007, with IPO volumes shrinking by more than 50% year on year and the Nikkei creeping downwards. This year looks to have had a bad start too: blame the US or not, local analysts say the index could dip below 12000 this year.
