Analysts dismiss fears of Japanese stock market 'bubble'

Tokyo

AS the Nikkei 225 stock index broke briefly through the 20,000 barrier for the first time in 15 years on Friday - though it retreated thereafter - Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akira Amari suggested that a "small bubble" in stock prices was a welcome development.

Saying that such a bubble was containable, he said: "If recent stock gains are signs of a mini bubble, this is something I would welcome."

However, not everyone was falling over themselves to see 20,000 - the level the Nikkei has been flirting at for weeks - as bubble territory.

"It is not a bubble," Jesper Koll of JP Morga…