You are right about Japan. I'm not sure about China as it might be too corrupt for passive investing to work.
Why would an Australian want exposure to domestic equity when, most likely, he is already exposed to Australia's economy?
To help mitigate the currency risk of investments? (Although I'm not sure about this answer.)
I'm not sure about China as it might be too corrupt for passive investing to work.
That's an interesting offhand comment. Does that imply that EMH doesn't apply to financial assets in corrupt economies, specifically to external (foreign) investors who can come and leave as they want?
Also, while China's official economic numbers are highly suspect (see e.g. this), it looks very likely that it is one of the three world's biggest economies (along with USA and EU). Can a passive investor afford to ignore it?
...To help mitigate the currency risk of investments
This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.
Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.
To any future monthly posters of SQ threads, please remember to add the "stupid_questions" tag.