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Buffet investing in Japanese Companies

RbrtRbrt
in Other Investing
Good article from Barrons. Hopefully available to all.

https://apple.news/A3FA7CJprT0q52OyX8c5nQQ

“Japan is a value play,” says John Vail, chief global strategist at Nikko Asset Management. “But that’s also coupled with long-term structural improvements in corporate governance, operational gearing to a global economic upswing, and extreme political stability.”

“Japan is more like Germany than the U.S.,” says Masakazu Takeda, a portfolio manager at Sparx Asset Management in Japan and co-manager of the Hennessy Japan fund (HJPNX). “There aren’t too many internet companies, but Japan has highly competitive manufacturing businesses. Manufacturing excellence is one of Japan’s advantages.”

Comments

  • WABACWABAC
    Might be a good play. If you're down with robots. Their demographics were cratering last I looked. Who, or what, is buying whatever is being made in Japan?
  • RbrtRbrt
    I would assume it is a export play. From the article:
    “ There is nothing like the Nasdaq in Japan. Like Europe, Japan lacks a large and innovative tech sector.
    Its top five companies—Toyota Motor (TM), Sony (SNE), SoftBank Group (SFTBY), Keyence (KYCCF), and Nintendo (NTDOY)—have their attributes, but don’t compare to the U.S. giants. Only four companies in Japan have market values above $100 billion—against about 65 in the U.S.
    What Japan possesses instead is a group of high-quality industrial businesses like Toyota; Keyence, the leader in factory automation; Daikin Industries (6367.Japan), a top global maker of air-conditioning equipment; and Nidec (NJDCY), an innovative, major producer of electric motors.”
  • Sven
    No I can only read the article on my iPad. Interesting article.

    Cannot do that on my iMac. I wouldn't mind pay a subscription on my Mac.
  • MikeMMikeM
    Barrons is one of my indulgences. Paper comes every Saturday and I read it cover to cover over morning coffee on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Guess I'm old. I still prefer reading an old fashion news print with my coffee.
  • Sven
    I used to subscribe to Barron's, then it went downhill similar to that of WSJ. The paper got thinner and the quality of the paper suffered. This was about the time when newspapers starting to go toward online subscription. The quality of journalism should stay constant of whether they are on printed media or online. It seems the need to rush the stories out first then to fix errors later in later editions ar quite common today. This is later confirmed by a good friend who is a senior editor at WSJ.
  • Lukemon
    Good article and discussion, in addition to Keyence for factory automation, Fanuc is one I'm keeping an eye one for robotics, both are a little bit pricey right now to me. Another trend to observe is that China now graduates more engineers than the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Taiwan combined. Thanks again Rbrt for the post, Lukemon
  • sma3
    I agree it is a shadow of it's former self but the articles are far far better than the WSJ, and mostly free of politics.

    Now that the "daily Shot" is independent of the WSJ, I am canceling my subscription. The editorials are more Trump than Trump
  • hank
    edited September 2020
    https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/55234/japanese-stocks-are-well-placed-to-confound-the-skeptics

    Since I posted the above story 6 months ago, Price’s PRJPX is up about 9.4%. YTD it’s up by 10%, and for one year It’s up 26%. Their Nikkei stock market is still recovering from one of the greatest boom & bust cycles in recorded history. I’m not recommending it as an investment, though I do like multi-nation funds that have maybe 10-25% exposure to Japan.

    (Above cited data from Yahoo and Lipper)

    The 2018 Accord Hybrid I bought 2 years ago is a superbly designed auto for its price range (mid-20s). Probably the best overall build-quality of anything I’ve owned. The car was assembled in Ohio, but the engine was imported from Japan.

    Sony still makes some fine electronics. I have two of its SRX series bluetooth speakers. It’s amazing what the SRX-XB41 can do. (Completely waterproof too, in case I decide to take it swimming.)

    +1 @MikeM - Barron’s is still a fine read. Nice broad education in financial & investment thinking. When you get down to it, the ability to weigh data and compare subjective opinions and than fashion your own investing approach is much more valuable and longer lasting than the latest “hot tip” on what to buy. I hear Barron’s doesn’t have the charts / data it once did. That’s probably true. Who needs it with everything on the internet now?
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