Book Review: Investing in Japan

Investing in Japan, by Steven Towns, is the best book I have read on investing in Japan. Unfortunately, that isn’t saying very much because it is also the only book I have read on investing in Japan.

The book was written in 2012 and is aiming to be an introduction to the Japanese investing environment, as well as an argument to invest in undervalued Japanese companies (a la Graham/Buffett).

I found the book after reading some of this site, which claims to have a good system for finding undervalued (Net Net) stocks, including many in Japan. The site requires a subscription membership (from $125 a month to $500 a year). Seems a bit expensive, but some of the free articles are interesting.

Back to Investing in Japan, though. The good thing about this book is that it provides a fair amount of information about the various stock exchanges, types of Japanese stocks, broad trends in Japan, and investing stories.

The bad thing is that the book is a complete mess, with little structure or narrative. I don’t really know what the author wanted to say, which is a shame as he seems very knowledgeable and the stuff he writes is interesting. It’s also really dry at times, with lists of financial information taking up whole sections of the book.

A good editor could have transformed this book. As it is I would probably only give it two or three stars.

If you are interested in investing and buying individual stocks in Japan, Investing in Japan might be worth reading. If not, don’t bother.

Any good book recommendations? Please leave them in the comments below.