The nail that sticks out must be hammered down, as the old Japanese proverb has it. Investors long Japan must be hoping that colleagues of Shizuka Kamei, the newly installed minister for financial services, start brandishing the mallet – and soon. Since Mr Kamei answered the call of the Democratic Party of Japan three weeks ago, markets have winced at his every utterance.

The 72-year-old former policeman, a black belt in aikido, was known for holding combative views: his website derides various features of “American-style” capitalism. But even by these standards, musings on a three-year moratorium on loan repayments for small and medium-sized companies were remarkable. Mr Kamei also accused the central bank of “talking in its sleep” and linked rising murder and suicide rates to the attitude of Keidanren, the nation's biggest business lobby. All this has spooked investors. The Topix banks index has underperformed the global banking benchmark by 2.5 per cent since September 16th, the day he took office; the Topix itself has lagged the rest of Asia by more than 5 per cent. Flows into equity funds, as tracked by EPFR, showed a strong run before the general election, but September ended with two consecutive weeks of outflows. Even credit markets, historically indifferent to Japan's worsening fiscal position, are showing signs of strain. The price of protecting five-year government debt against default has leapt by a quarter.

Mr Kamei should not be written off. Tim Geithner's early notices were terrible; the US Treasury secretary has since grown into the role. And Mr Kamei may have been exploiting the temporary absence of Yukio Hatoyama, the prime minister, detained in Pittsburgh and Copenhagen. But for many marginal investors, his outbursts are just the latest excuse to steer clear of the country and its assets. Shizuka means “quiet” in Japanese. A period of calm reflection from Mr Kamei would not go amiss.