Rush to ‘value up’ may be Asia stocks best defence against Trump

The swelling tide of “value up” can be traced back to Japan’s effort to improve corporate governance that began more than a decade ago. Despite a lack of success early on, investors began to take notice from 2022 when Tokyo Stock Exchange started to pressure companies to boost shareholders returns via a range of measures.

Two years later, Japanese firms are returning more cash to investors. They have also boosted the number of women on boards, become more open to working with activist investors, and unwound some of their cross-shareholdings. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed to a record in March, finally shaking off three decades of inertia.