Financial Centres: London and Tokyo: A Yen to Trade

A collapse in Chinese stock prices in February triggered a wave of selling in global markets. The crisis is a reminder that, although the Japanese economy is still far bigger than China’s, it is on China that the world is now focussing. Japan of the 1980s was confident that Tokyo would become the world’s second – perhaps, even, the leading – financial centre, so why has it actually been losing ground, even within Asia?