LONDON (Reuters) - The BlackRock Investment Institute (BII) said on Tuesday that Japan stocks were its favoured equity investment play, while the prospect of higher-for-longer interest rates made inflation-linked bonds attractive on a strategic horizon.

"(Japanese equities are) our highest conviction equity view thanks to support from the return of mild inflation, shareholder-friendly corporate reforms and a Bank of Japan that is cautiously normalizing policy - rather than tightening," said BII, an arm of U.S.-based investment firm BlackRock ( BLK ) that provides proprietary investment research.

Meanwhile on a strategic horizon, BII said in its mid-year outlook it liked inflation-linked bonds given higher-for-longer policy rates as well as large fiscal deficits. On a country level, Mexico and India should "benefit from rewiring supply chains in the long term," BII added.