Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (TM): Why Japanese Stocks Will Go Even Higher

The fact that Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:TM) does not have to deal with high pension and health-care costs makes this stock a great complement to the Detroit Three. Also, a very small debt compared with the size of accumulated cash, makes Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:TM) a safe stock and interesting complement to owning TEPCO: cash and cash equivalents surpass ¥2.7 trillion (about 16% of the current market capitalization).

The green transformation

My final pick for today, once-glorious Panasonic, has a lot of greatness remaining.

Panasonic had a rough year and had to cut thousands of workers. At some point in November, its stock was worth only 376 yen, an 88% decrease from its 2000 price. But a weak yen combined with the restructuring effect are now causing meaningful financial and efficiency improvements. Add to this the fact that Panasonic is heavily addressing the green consumer, a promising market. In its second-quarter results, Panasonic announced that sales from its Eco Solutions division increased 6% from a year ago, due “to significant sales growth in solar business of Energy Systems BD”.

While there are still many challenges to long-term consistent growth in sales, Panasonic is still a strong brand in Japan and if its green transformation succeeds, international sales could recover and this could be a wonderful comeback. Definitely worth-watching.

Stay tuned! More Japanese picks coming soon, including a deep, realistic analysis of Japanese debt and its macroeconomic effects.

The article Why Japanese Stocks Will Go Even Higher originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Adrian Campos.

Adrian Campos is long Tokyo Electric Power Company. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Adrian is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited

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