Warren Buffett Bullish on Japan

Billionaire investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) Warren Buffett said that his outlook for Japan is unchanged despite the devastation caused by this year's earthquake and tsunami and a more recent financial scandal at Japanese camera maker Olympus Corporation.Warren Buffett made the comments during a visit to Tungaloy Corporation, a company that manufactures tools for cars and planes. Tungaloy Corporation is owned by a company that Berkshire Hathaway has a controlling interest in and is located in the Fukushima prefecture about 25 miles from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant that was crippled during the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan's northeast. Warren Buffett was scheduled to visit the company in March but those plans were scrapped in the aftermath of the disaster that struck Japan that month.While the financial scandal that hit Olympus Corporation after the company admitted to covering up years of losses has made many investors question the state of corporate governance in Japan, Buffett said that it could have happened anywhere in the world and the fact that it occurred in Japan didn't make him question the attractiveness of the Japanese market as a whole.Investors have a number of ways to profit if Warren Buffett's display of confidence in the Japanese economy proves to be justified. The Japanese stock market has performed poorly this year and has recently been sinking further but if a famed value investor like Buffett thinks that Japanese companies make attractive investments, investors would be wise to listen.Investors who want to profit from a possible Japanese turn around could do so by buying an ETF like the iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund (NYSE: EWJ). This ETF gives investors exposure to a large number of Japanese stocks and if the Japanese economy improves it should climb higher.Investors who don't mind taking on more risk could also look into individual Japanese stocks like Hitachi (NYSE: HIT), Kubota Corporation (NYSE: KUB) and Internet Initiative Japan (Nasdaq: IIJI). The upside for investors who choose well is considerably higher than the iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund (EWJ) ETF.Investors who think that Warren Buffett is wrong about Japan should take a look at the ProShares UltraShort MSCI Japan (NYSE: EWV) ETF. If Buffett's enthusiasm for Japanese companies turns out to be overly optimistic, the ProShares UltraShort MSCI Japan (EWV) could move higher as the Japanese market continues to fall.