phil mercer, bbc news, sydney.japan, where we've seen the stock market hit record highs this month, even as the economy remains in a technical recession. so why is there such a divergence between the stock market and the broader economy? jesper koll, who has been following the japanese economy and stock market for over three decades, weighed in. the ceos are now really focusing on capital returns, so you see a record number of share buy—backs, record amount of mna activity, so the gap between the japanese economy and the japanese stock market is widening because, now, the ceos of companies care about the shareholders. and could you give us an example of companies that have done that were taken that sort of action? look, you see it in the aggregate numbers, record number of share buy—backs now, almost 3% of market capitalisation. that used to be close to nothing. then, just yesterday, you had a new takeover bid in the drug store space here with aon corporation, the big giant, potentially taking over some of the subs