Buffett On The Prowl in Japan

Warren Buffett is looking for investment opportunities in Japan, saying that neither the huge earthquake that devastated the country earlier this year nor the recent scandal surrounding Olympus Corp. have soured him on Japanese firms.

“There are lots of opportunities in Japan,” Buffett said during a visit to the country to visit a tool-making company that is majority-owned by one of the subsidiaries of his Berkshire Hathaway, Bloomberg reports. “We’re looking for companies that have some kind of sustainable competitive advantage. … The fact that Olympus happens here or Enron happens in the U.S. doesn’t affect our attitudes at all.” Buffett has made bullish bets on Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index through derivatives contracts, Bloomberg adds.

Buffett also discussed the eurozone debt crisis, saying that, “One way or another, Europeans will solve their problems. But in the process of solving them there already have been very important dislocations and they will have effects on individual countries” and banks in the region that need capital.