Japan Allocation in an Investment Portfolio

AnotherJoe

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Why did you exit?

Because i felt I had better places to invest in.
Amd to be frank I just lost faith in the Japanese economy, it seemed stagnant.

grey_gym_sock

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Because i felt I had better places to invest in.
Amd to be frank I just lost faith in the Japanese economy, it seemed stagnant.

what's done well over the most recent period of 3-5 years (or whatever you were looking at) isn't a good way to decide where to invest. as it happens, investing in japan has given very good returns for the most recent few years. which presumably you've missed out on.

japan's economy has its problems. as does every country's. but it's a stable, socially cohesive country, with an advanced economy. and its stock market often performs differently from european or n. american markets, so it adds some diversification. why leave it out?

bowlhead99 wrote: »

As an aside, when looking at sensible comparators for performance, the Nikkei 225 is a bit of a basket case of an index, being constructed more like the US Dow rather than the much broader and market-cap based S&P500.

trackers for japan mostly follow more normal indexes, such as FTSE japan index, or MSCI japan index. i usually reckon that an index covering more shares is better, and FTSE japan covers more than MSCI japan - though it probably won't make a lot of difference. (there's also a MSCI japan IMI index, which covers more shares again.)

as well as those big-cap trackers, i also hold a small-cap tracker, ishares MSCI small cap ETF (ISJP). which has gained even more than a big-cap tracker over the last 2 or 3 years. i was considering buying BGSN instead, which would have done even better.

slowpoke_rodriguez

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Because i felt I had better places to invest in.
.

And did they deliver?

Thrugelmir

Stannis wrote: »

As Japan is the world’s third largest economy there are arguments that it should be represented in a balanced portfolio.There are also arguments that due to factors such as decades of deflation and ongoing issues with the economy such as an aging workforce the Japanese stock market is a value trap.

Have you never heard of Toshiba, Nissan, Toyota, Canon, Panasonic, Honda, Nikon, Sony, Nintendo.........:think:

slowpoke_rodriguez

Stannis wrote: »

Good Morning All
and ongoing issues with the economy such as an aging workforce the Japanese stock market is a value trap.
Leg Mason Japan Trust and [SIZE=2/FONT]prefer to have exposure via more general regional/global funds.
Or do they just avoid?
Thanks in advance for any responses.

A substantial portion of one of the very best performing funds of recent years- Legg Mason Japan- is held in companies looking after these old Japanese codgers...

dunstonh

As Japan is the world’s third largest economy there are arguments that it should be represented in a balanced portfolio.

No arguments at all. It appears in all the sector allocated models in most (but not all) of their risk profiles.

AnotherJoe

slowpoke_rodriguez wrote: »

And did they deliver?

Yes they did, much more than Japan

But I'm out of my trading mentality now .... mostly ... still got the Apple shares

But have gone for global funds so I do now have Japanese as a result, but don't fret about what it's doing on a day by day basis. I guess that's one argument for global funds instead of building your own from more regional, avoids the temptation to time the market on sectors.

Cash-Cows

I'm mainly a passive investor so don't hold a separate Japan fund. Japan makes up 7% of my portfolio.

BrockStoker

Around 8% of my entire portfolio is invested in Baillie Gifford JSC. It's by far the largest geographic specific holding (out of 2 - the other being India) I have (outside of the UK). It's generated a significant part of my portfolio's growth over the 1.5-2 years I've held it, and I intend to hold it for the foreseeable future.

I would be weary buying funds that hold Yen quoted stocks right now though, since when converted to GBP they have gone up by over 10% since the referendum. If things start to look good for the UK/Bexit, the exchange rate could head back to the way it was, which could loose you 10% (if you'd bought now) potentially - not a good start! There might be an argument for buying a Sterling hedged Japan fund.

On the other hand, things could stay like they are for a long time to come, nobody knows for sure.

Stannis

Many thanks to everyone who responded. Much appreciated. Will start drip feeding funds into a passive tracker for the time being (BlackRock Japan Equity Tracker Fund through HL).