Bullish on Japan, Buy the EWJ

iShares MSCI Japan Index (ETF) (NYSE:EWJ) could be the weapon of choice provided Dylan Grice at Societe Generale is correct in calculating that 5% of stocks in the FTSE Japan index now trade below estimated liquidation value, including five names with market capitalizations over a billion dollars.

iShares MSCI Japan Index (ETF) (NYSE:EWJ)
iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI Japan Index (the Index). The Index seeks to measure the performance of the Japanese equity market. It is a capitalization-weighted index that aims to capture 85% of the (publicly available) total market capitalization.

Here is what the EWJ is currently made up of according to iShares.com:

(WSJ.com) As Dylan Grice Grice puts it: “Why wouldn’t you want to own assets that have been generating substantial shareholder wealth yet which trade below their liquidation values?”

Everyone is looking for a safety net in these straitened days. This sounds like quite a good one.

SOURCE: http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2010/02/03/gordon-gekko-looks-east/