The many virtues of the yen, the rich world’s cheapest currency

THE LAST shall be first, and the first, last. An emerging theme in capital markets is that securities that generated bumper returns in the era of low inflation, sluggish demand and zero interest rates—think American tech stocks—are under pressure, while assets that fared horribly in the 2010s (oil, mining and bank stocks) are holding up well. If it is cheap, inflation-proof and formerly unloved, capital is now increasingly drawn to it.This brings us to the yen, the forgotten currency of the least inflation-prone big economy, Japan.