There are many symptoms of the widespread nervous sentiment in Asia regarding China’s aggressive stance vis-à-vis its neighbours. Nowhere is that sentiment deeper than in Taiwan, where many people believe it is only a matter of time before China will move to embrace formally and forcefully what it considers its renegade province.

Perhaps counterintuitively, Japan looks to be a beneficiary of those rising tensions in the region. For example, Taiwanese money has recently started flowing into the Japanese property market. It isn’t the hot money looking for a quick flip but the bolt-hole money that fears confiscation and is looking for a haven.

Every month staff working for Haruo Yamamoto, president and founder of Largo, a Tokyo-based property company, go to Taiwan to hold seminars on buying property in Japan. At the same time, Largo and a number of others are coaching Japanese in the art of selling property to the “barbarians”.