Most exchanges are closed today for the Chistmas holiday, but some markets in Asia were open. In Japan, stocks were up today as newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe takes his post this week. Abe has called for a weaker yen compared to the U.S. dollar.

This has Japan’s export economy feeling optimistic, says Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group.

“A lot of Japan’s exporters, from Toyota to Sony, have been getting killed because consumers around the world are saying [their] products are too expensive compared to products from Korea like Samsung and LG,” he explains.

Stocks were also up in mainland China today. Rein says newly appointed President Xi Jinping’s movement toward a consumer-based economy, as well as his efforts to crack down on corruption, could “spur sustainable growth over the next five to ten year period.”