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Richiv's avatar

Excellent, useful, and timely summary. As an owner of a ski property in Hakuba I'm disappointed in the slow reopening (recent step only allows hotel/pension stays), but am hopeful things will ease by December! With the JPY weakness property prices are extremely cheap in Japan and there are no barriers to ownership. I built a 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom ski home for under USD 600k at current exchange rates which seems completely the wrong price when it's still possible to borrow yen for 1.5%

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Michael Fritzell's avatar

Thank you, Richard! US$600k for a 5-bedroom, 5-bathroom house sounds compelling, to say the least. I wish I were able to borrow from a Japanese bank at 1.5%(!)

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Richiv's avatar

Hi Michael. I actually borrowed from a Singapore bank against my stock/bond portfolio. Pre-covid, the rent would have been USD $6-7k a week gross during the high season, so yes very compelling!

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Johan Eklund, CFA's avatar

Informative, thematic bird's eye view. Really enjoyed it!

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Michael Fritzell's avatar

Thank you, Johan 🙏

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Jon Metzler's avatar

Timely and insightful, thank you. I am afraid to be optimistic, if that makes sense, as the "opening" has just been *so* measured and gradual.

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Michael Fritzell's avatar

Yes the opening has been measured, perhaps because of public opinion having been against it. So a delay in the reopening is the key risk here. On the other hand, Kishida seems determined to calibrate the border policy to match those of other G7 nations.

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CJ Real's avatar

As always, great analysis Michael!

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Michael Fritzell's avatar

Thanks!

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