Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), Japan’s largest shipowner, saw its share price leap 11% yesterday to a record high after the US’s Elliott Investment Management disclosed a significant stake in Tokyo firm.

Elliott, which has a long history in investing in Japan, said in a release it felt MOL was undervalued. 

“We are a significant investor in Mitsui O.S.K. because we see an opportunity to work constructively with the Company to ensure its upcoming medium-term management plan is appropriately ambitious, to reframe how it is viewed by the market and to deliver the premium valuation it deserves,” Elliott stated. 

Japan has become the world’s second-largest market for activist investors, outstripped only by the US, as the government and the Tokyo Stock Exchange have aligned to push corporate Japan to pay more attention to shareholder returns. Elliott has been a central driver of that shift as reflected in its growing Japan portfolio, now spanning shipping, energy, real estate, and trading houses.

Elliott has invested in many major Japanese corporates in recent years, including Softbank, Sumitomo, Tokyo Gas, Toyota and Kansai Electric Power. 

In late 2013, Elliott took control of the bankrupt Japanese shipowner Sanko Steamship and proceeded to close the majority of the overseas offices of the company, eventually asset-stripping its overseas properties and the equity left in its vessels.