A terrible corporate hangover from the consumption-tax hike has set in.

In a decade or two, nearly 40% of the Japanese population will be retired; and the single-risk it should never take is to induce a collapse of its currency, and the resulting sharp inflation of its import bill for virtually all its energy and industrial materials.

The miracles performed by Abenomics – an economic religion touted with blinding exuberance around the world – and the endless wonders performed by the Bank of Japandemonium, are now coming home to roost.

This year has been lumpy for stocks around the world. Gone are the wild rallies followed by mild rallies interrupted by minor downticks, followed by more rallies. That’s so 2013. It’s as if on December 31, someone turned off the spigot. But in Japan, it turned into a rout.

Japanese corporations no longer even try to invest in Japan, but they’re falling all over each other grabbing the Bank of Japan’s freshly printed dough to invest it overseas.

Abenomics, a democratically elected economic religion, was to save Japan. But the plan has already gone to heck. Not in small increments over the years with minor ups and downs, but in relentless month-to-month leaps whose viciousness surprised even the deep cynic in me.