Lim also sees signs wage growth is at an early stage of improvement, which, if sustained, could help boost consumption growth in the future . DBS, which went overweight on Japan stocks in 2012, is sticking with its call.  DBS isn't alone. Global investors are a net 37 percent overweight on Japan stocks, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch global fund manager survey for July. Japan ranks second, after Europe, for the market investors most want to be overweight, the survey found, with a net 70 percent of Japan equity specialists saying the economy is improving.  Not everyone is gung-ho, though, about pushing money into Japan investments.  Temasek, Singapore's $196 billion sovereign wealth fund, has no direct exposure to Japan, despite having "transforming economies" as one of its four key investment themes.  Read More Japan's retail sales, industrial output paint mixed picture  "We continue to look at Japan and opportunities in Japan," Ravi Lambah, senior managing director for investments at Temasek, said at the press conference last week announcing the fund's results. "For us to make an investment, it has to fit the criteria and what we look at."  One headwind to buying companies in Japan may be the expense of competing with potential homegrown buyers with buckets of cash sitting on their balance sheets. With Japan's bond yields likely to remain stuck at lows, the bar for returns on acquisitions is set fairly low.  That may have been a driver behind Japan Post's acquisition of Australian freight player Toll Holdings in February. Analysts said the nearly 50 percent premium Japan Post shelled out for Toll was excessive, but Toll's around 4.8 percent pre-offer dividend yield may still have looked juicy compared with the yield offered on the 10-year Japanese government bond, currently around 0.46 percent.
Negative calls on Japan's market remain few and far between despite a nearly non-stop rally, suggesting building confidence in the economic revival.