Scanning the globe for investment destinations can be a daunting task. When it comes to stock markets, however, relative strength analysis serves a useful purpose of highlighting under- or outperforming markets (or individual stocks) at a glance. Having perused a bunch of these charts, the Japanese situation stands out as being of particular interest.

Firstly, let’s look at the long-term chart of the Nikkei 225 Average. Japan’s stock market had an extended multi-year rally that started in earnest in the 70s and accelerated sharply in the 80s. The Nikkei peaked on December 29, 1989 at 38,915. During the devastating deflationary period that ensued the average dropped by a massive 80.5% to 7,607 on April 28, 2003. The Nikkei staged a recovery from 2003 until 2007 when the sub-prime fallout