A quick flick through the pages of this month's Fund Strategy reveals a fairly definitive theme: the prospects for the world's third largest economy, which has been dogged by a series of false dawns, each seemingly different to the last.
Those managing money in Japan are consistently selling the "this time it is different" argument and time after time over the past two decades investors who have bought the argument have ended up disappointed.
So, well over a year since Shinzo Abe took office in December 2012, this month's cover story by Daniel Ben-Ami assesses, with the benefit of some hindsight, the impact 'Abenomics' has had on the economy and on asset prices.
Building on this, Brian Tora takes a look at the winners and losers in the IMA Japan sector, while the Fund Strategy Investment Committee get their teeth into the debate, assisted by Schroders ' chief economist, Keith Wade.
Meanwhile, we convened the second Fund Strategy roundtable where we put together a panel of experts to grill leading fund management houses in the Japanese space, the results of which can be found on page 26. For those interested purely in the numbers, the FE data page picks out the top performers, looks at where the inflows and outflows are going and who has done best on a risk versus return basis.
But the magazine looks at more than just Japan. After Chancellor George Osborne's 'bombshell' Budget, all eyes are on the fund management industry, not only because the limit to what investors can put in an Isa - or Nisa, as it will now be called - is now £15,000 but also because a previously unexpected inflow of funds is predicted after the announcement that anyone over 55 can take their entire pension as cash rather than have to buy an annuity.
"The guns have been fired for the funds industry," said the IMA's Julie Patterson at last month's Fund Strategy Investment Summit. "The key question is: can the industry step up to the plate?"
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