Good Sun Rising As Japan's economy gets stronger, so do the funds.

Japan's made the news a lot lately--from its hot stockmarket to its top car brands. What this means for investors isopportunity--in small doses, of course.

Don Cassidy, a senior research analyst at Lipper, saysthat for the calendar year 2005, the average return for Japanesefunds was 33.64 percent. "That was enough to push theirpreviously lagging longer-period returns from minus to plus signsall the way back for 15 years," he says.

Cassidy points out that Japan's economy has turned aroundafter a long, painful spell. Consumer and business confidence areup, corporate and banking reforms are taking place, and anexpanding world economy has created opportunity for Japaneseexporters.