"seizing the world financial crisis as the greatest buying opportunity in a generation. "

A interesting post on the NY Times:

"Since last month, Japan’s legions of household savers have poured into the market by the tens of thousands — many of them first-time investors — seizing the world financial crisis as the greatest buying opportunity in a generation.

Sitting atop $15 trillion in personal savings, they are snapping up equities, currencies and even riskier investments like index futures, to some extent replacing foreign investors and even helping drive a limited rally in Tokyo’s beleaguered exchanges, say stock analysts.

“The stock market rout has popularized stock trading like nothing before,” said Yuji Kusunoki, president of Rakuten Securities. “It’s a paradox, but all the grim news has actually ended up making the market seem more attractive.”

This makes sense to me. And:

“I’m usually quite conservative,” Ms. Fujiwara said. “But prices were just so cheap, it looked better than leaving my money in the bank.” She says she has broken even since she started investing in early October."

Sounds good. And:

"The change has helped end a large outflow of yen overseas known as the yen-carry trade. For years, Japanese households poured money into overseas assets, where they could earn better returns than in Japan with its near-zero interest rates. But in October, net investment in domestic stock mutual funds surpassed investment in foreign bond funds for the first time in 27 months, according to Nomura Research Institute, a Tokyo-based consulting company. "

So they are investing in Japan now, keeping the money in the country.

"Stock analysts said the risks of buying in the teeth of a global recession were huge, and trying to call the bottom as stocks appear likely to face further declines is potentially costly. But they said the long time frame of most small investors, who tend to buy and hold shares for years, meant they may come out ahead eventually.

“They are wading into a treacherous market,” said Katsuyasu Murata, deputy general manager of sales planning at Daiwa Securities, “but prices have fallen to the point that they make no sense.”

I would say the bull market that we had was a treacherous market, but that's just me.

“Japanese individuals are natural contrarians,” said Tsuyoshi Ogata, a spokesman for SBI Securities, a Tokyo-based online brokerage firm. “They only come in on the big dips” that come every half decade or so, he said."

Again, makes sense to me.

“Regular office workers have no chance to get rich, and it’s hard to imagine Japan become much wealthier, either,” Mr. Mukai said. “I’m doing this to take care of myself, by myself.”

I like his attitude.