Japan ETFs for 2020

Cheers everybody! I’ll have what they’re having!

Happy New Year! I wish you all health, wealth and happiness for 2020. Most of us are settled back into work now, and some of you may even be planning your investment strategy for the year to come. Perhaps you are considering how to allocate your NISA contributions, or just wondering how things will play out over the next 12 months? There is a lot of investment chatter around the Olympics of course, but it’s also interesting to note what Japan’s central bank is doing.

I saw the above chart on a tweet from Zerohedge towards year-end. It has been widely publicised that the Bank of Japan have been big buyers of Japan Exchange Traded Funds over the last three years, but what exactly are they buying? And if you were buying Japan stocks at this time, would that influence your choices?

It turns out that the BOJ don’t simply buy only the Nikkei or Topix indices. As part of their overall public policy, the BOJ send a message by focussing on stocks of companies that actively engage in capital and human resources investment. (see here) In order to encourage companies to invest in their people and long-term assets, the BOJ is willing to invest some 300 billion yen per year. (their actual purchases can be tracked here so you can keep an eye on whether they are still buying)

A big issue the BOJ face is that they are constrained to not purchase more than half of the market value of any one ETF. The rest should be held by private investors. There are only a handful of ETFs that fit the definition of capital / human resources investment ETFs and, as the Japanese public have been slow to wake up to the idea of investing in this area, it is hard for the BOJ to find anything big enough to allocate the whole 300 billion yen to.

What that means is, that if you invest in one of these ETF’s, you are effectively giving the central bank the ability to “match” your investment. Every ¥10,000 the public invest adds ¥10,000 to the capacity the Bank of Japan have to buy that same fund. That’s a pretty heavy hitter you’ll be investing alongside!

The following ETFs look like they would fit the investment criteria:

1479:JP Daiwa ETF MSCI Japan Human and Physical Investment Index

1484:JP One ETF JPX/S&P CAPEX & Human Capital Index

1480:JP Next Funds Nomura Enterprise Value Allocation Index

It’s also interesting to note what happens with the money that can’t be invested due to lack of capacity: It is allocated to a JPX-Nikkei 400 ETF. It turns out that companies in this index have been quick to wake up to the prospect of big investment from the BOJ and have been making an effort to increase capital and human resources investment, which then acts as a stimulus to the real economy.

So if you are a buyer of Japan stocks today, and I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t be, but if you were, wouldn’t you want to have some of what the BOJ are having?

Disclaimer: This should go without saying, but the information contained in this blog is not investment advice, or an incentive to invest, and should not be considered as such. This is for information only.