Foreign complaints as Nikkei scoops Japan's inside line

Bloomberg complaining that Nikkei has an advantage in Japan is as silly if Nikkei were complaining that Bloomberg and the WSJ have the advantage in America. Any serious foreign investor in Japan minimally had an agent or perhaps even an office.

And weeks before firms report their quarterly financial results, the Nikkei rolls out figures that are so accurate they often beat analysts’ forecasts.

This ought to make analysts' jobs easy, because simply parroting the Nikkei's releases will make them look good.

Joking aside, some analysts in Japan obviously do this. Portions of the content of certain analyst reports verge on plagiarism, with some snippets that are word-for-word with Nikkei articles. Anyway, this piece by the AFP should help boost Nikkei sales somewhat.

Feeling left out? Hire someone in Japan to read the Nikkei for you.

The advantaged investor class complaining about advantage. How can we not feel sorry for them?

Actually this is serious news. Due to extremely close relationships with the business, Nikkei becomes an extension of the companies themselves which is not good from an independent journalism point of view.

It also raises a lot of question marks if they would publish a "scoop" first if was bad news for the companies they are reporting on. If the company gets upset, they may not "leak" any information in the future, whuch would be bad for business. I do remember they were not that quick on picking up the Olympus news even when foreign press first started talking about it...

Bloomberg complaining that Nikkei has an advantage in Japan is as silly if Nikkei were complaining that Bloomberg and the WSJ have the advantage in America. Any serious foreign investor in Japan minimally had an agent or perhaps even an office.

liarsnfools -- nonsense, and if you really understood the way the two countries/markets view insider information/trading -- or maybe even read the entire article -- you would know that. But let me quote from the article:

“The (regulators) should strengthen the legislation around fair disclosure and it has to be rigorously enforced.

“Japan has never managed to create a market culture—and there is still a lot of suspicion about how (the market) functions.”

Rules about firms disseminating information as widely as possible only date from 1999 in Japan, and a former chief of a large firm said companies sometimes confirm information collected by an army of Nikkei reporters, who hold regular meetings with company executives.

Like so many elements of Japan Inc., there is a good-old-boys club, of which Nikkei is a key part, to manage the manner in which things work. Remember, Japan values predictability above everything else, including a free market. And having this structure provides that.

Anyone that thinks these are "scoops" with "crystal ball-like accuracy" has rocks in their head. How well do you know Japan? All is not what it seems...

Eat your heart out Bloomberg. I'm sure you have more than enough advantage with US financial publication. Besides Bloomberg is only complaining because Nikkei is doing well & big US investors want piece of the pie. If the Nikkei was getting hammered, they wouldn't give a sh**.

feeling left out, geez if your a foreign investor or Japanese stocks then it would be in your interest to hire a native japanese with brokerage experience or a japanese brokerage company to invest on your behalf. to be left out because you cant read a Japanese newspaper is just plain pathetic

Anyone who thinks this is about a jealous competitor is looking at it wrong. I work in the industry and insider trading is RAMPANT here. Stock prices swing wildly for two days before a big announcement is made all the time. Around the office we just shake our heads but if you are trying to become a global center for finance (As Tokyo wants to be), you can NOT have this kind of thing.

The Nikkei's blatant disregard for proper stewardship of information is front and center. I'm sure Bloomberg/WSJ/FT reporters GET this kind of information. The difference is that they don't PRINT it.

The whole problem with Nikkei and other Jpublications is the very fact of no sources being necessary. Might as well go read 4chan for your daily news facts if you're going to believe something without proper sources and citations.