The Japanese share was 4.3 percent, down from 4.5 percent.

It specialized in selling Japanese shares to British and other foreign institutions.

At the same time, foreign buying of Japanese shares soared to new records.

The drop in the market, he said, has helped to reduce the Japanese share of his portfolio below last fall's level.

As the overall market has gotten smaller, the Japanese share has grown.

In 1990 the Japanese share of the American car market is thought to have increased by one percentage point, to a record 30%.

Investors in Japanese shares have witnessed just two sustained market rallies over the last 15 years.

But now the Japanese share of the company was becoming large enough to be a threat of its own.

Meanwhile, the Japanese share of the world market peaked at 51 percent in 1988 and has dropped a bit since.

The fund's strong performance this quarter (up 3.7 percent) comes from health, commodity and financial services stocks, plus some Japanese shares, he said.