What to buy with USD?

[Ori]

I have some spare USD in my SBI account (dividends) which I'm not sure what to do with. Usually I was spending them on US gold or bonds ETFs, but I don't need any more of that at the moment. Rest of my investments is in Japanese MFs.
My portfolio consists of the following categories:
Foreign Developed stocks
Japan stocks
Foreign Emerging stocks
Emerging bond
US total bond *US ETF
Gold *US ETF
REIT
J-REIT

Are there any US ETFs which are more cost efficient than Japanese MFs in any of the categories above?
Note: I'm not a US citizen

[fools_gold]

I have some spare USD in my SBI account (dividends) which I'm not sure what to do with. Usually I was spending them on US gold or bonds ETFs, but I don't need any more of that at the moment. Rest of my investments is in Japanese MFs.
My portfolio consists of the following categories:
Foreign Developed stocks
Japan stocks
Foreign Emerging stocks
Emerging bond
US total bond *US ETF
Gold *US ETF
REIT
J-REIT

Are there any US ETFs which are more cost efficient than Japanese MFs in any of the categories above?
Note: I'm not a US citizen

I think for most of these Japanese mutual funds would be more tax efficient because of the US withholding tax and the fact that Japanese funds accumulate dividends. Gold would be an exception. The expense ratio for IAU is much less than the Japanese equivalents and there are no dividends to worry about.

[Ori]

I think for most of these Japanese mutual funds would be more tax efficient because of the US withholding tax and the fact that Japanese funds accumulate dividends. Gold would be an exception. The expense ratio for IAU is much less than the Japanese equivalents and there are no dividends to worry about.

Yes, those are the exact reasons why my portfolio is as it is.
Dividend taxing is not that much relevant for NISA accounts, although if Japanese MFs reinvest dividends monthly as opposed to my annual reinvestment, that would be their another advantage.
However, for the sake of currency diversification I don't want to sell my USD to buy Japanese MF.
I was thinking of purchasing global REIT ETF (REET, SCHH), as they have quite low ER comparing to Japanese MF, and as mentioned above, taxes on dividends are not an issue, however it seems that they are not available via SBI.
Considering, that defense ETFs I wanted to buy are also not available via SBI or Rakuten, it makes me wonder what's going on there and if I shouldn't have opened account with IB instead of Japanese brokers...

[adamu]

I have a lot of dividend-generating USD investments left over from before there were competitive domestic options.

I periodically send the dividends to the linked SBI Bank account, convert it to yen, and re-invest in Japanese funds.

I'm only investing in global index funds though - it sounds like IB might be a better fit for you, at least for investments outside of tax wrappers.

[Ori]

I'm only investing in global index funds though - it sounds like IB might be a better fit for you, at least for investments outside of tax wrappers.

I don't buy non-Japanese stocks/ETF outside of NISA because of the taxes and commissions. And it's not worth the hassle to change NISA provider at this stage.
So I guess, for the lack of better options, I will buy some gold or US bonds again...

[Viralriver]

Are you suggesting that someone should invest in non-Japanese ETFs in their NISA? Up till now I've been solely investing in the eMAXIslim All Country there - is there a reason not to do this?

[adamu]

Are you suggesting that someone should invest in non-Japanese ETFs in their NISA? Up till now I've been solely investing in the eMAXIslim All Country there - is there a reason not to do this?

No reason not to do it. UF ETFs are free to buy in a NISA on some platforms, so it's a bit cheaper to buy them that way if you want them. You still have to pay the exchange fees though, and unlike Japanese funds their dividends are subject to 10% US withholding tax even in the NISA, and you still have to pay the trading fee when you sell.

[Ori]

unlike Japanese funds their dividends are subject to 10% US withholding tax even in the NISA

I'm pretty sure that Japanese funds which invest in US assets pay this tax as well.

Are you suggesting that someone should invest in non-Japanese ETFs in their NISA? Up till now I've been solely investing in the eMAXIslim All Country there - is there a reason not to do this?

Depends on your asset allocation. Some assets, like the aforementioned US bonds and gold, are cheaper as ETFs, some are only available as ETFs. Whether it makes sense to put them in NISA depends on the asset itself and the asset allocation.

[adamu]

unlike Japanese funds their dividends are subject to 10% US withholding tax even in the NISA

I'm pretty sure that Japanese funds which invest in US assets pay this tax as well.

For purely US assets, right. But if you buy anything with non US components, like an emerging market ETF, if it's a US ETF you'll be paying US and Japanese taxes on the whole balance, whereas a Japanese fund isn't subject to US taxation for non-US investments.

[Ori]

That's true.