Japanese broking

I'm going to London today for meetings and am looking forward to drinks this evening with an old friend who invests in Japan. Seasoned Japanese fund managers, as we call them (they may not be Japanese, they simply invest in Japan) are an interesting breed, having experienced a rocket fuelled bull market and then having lost everything in a protracted bear market which pretty much wiped out most of their enthusiasm for life. This year the market has picked up a bit so I expect my friend will be quite perky, particularly as our other friend will be picking up the drinks tab. One of my old colleagues, Nobby, used to broke to a Japanese fund manager who was rather a prickly character. He used to insist that Nobby called him at 6.45am, at which time he would be in his early morning bath. Nobby would tell him the highlights of what had been happening on the Tokyo Stock Exchange that day. One day one of the analysts was pushing Sony after visiting the company. "Sony looks very good value: you really ought to buy some," Nobby said. There was much splashing of water at the other end of the phone. "Sell me a million," came the reply. "I said we're recommending it as a buy, " spluttered Nobby. More splashing, then, "Sell me a million!" and he hung up.