RetireJapan

Here's mine. Got lucky with my timing and have held/added to most positions starting around Nov 2016 (just before the "Trump trades").

Stocks

Yamada Denki +7.73% (mainly for the coupons, dividends)
Nissan +3.58% (mainly for the 4.5% dividends)
Elecom +25.70% (mainly for gifts and dividends)
Mizuho +16.70% (seemed like a good idea at the time, dividends aren't bad)
Es Con Japan +67.49% (good fundamentals and looked cheap)

Funds (Too many, I know. Bought similar funds because I found a cheaper rate) Some have been bought more recently than others)

ＳＢＩ－ＥＸＥ－ｉ新興国株式ファンド +18.59%
ＳＢＩ－ＥＸＥ－ｉグローバルＲＥＩＴファンド +12.51%
三井住友ＴＡＭ－ＳＭＴ　新興国株式インデックス・オープン +35.69%
ニッセイ－ニッセイ日経２２５インデックスファンド +34.93%
三井住友－三井住友・げんきシニアライフ・オープン +46.46％ (Invests in goods and services for elderly. Fee is a little high (1.62%), but I've got a good feeling about this one)
ＳＢＩ－ＳＢＩインド＆ベトナム株ファンド +34.47% (High fee but worth it for access to India and Vietnam)
インドＮＩＦ +18.71%
Hz MSCI 中国 +17.98% (I'm pro India, China, Vietnam and might get into more Philippines soon)
野村－野村インデックスファンド・外国株式・為替ヘッジ型 +18.97%
ニッセイ－＜購入・換金手数料なし＞ニッセイ外国株式インデックスファンド +15.51%
バンガード FTSE ヨーロッパ ETF +19.54%

Overall, up +21.48% (don't think this including dividends + gifts)

Should see a boost in US stocks from the Trump tax cuts. But the real growth in our lifetimes will be in Asia.

It seems two newly launched funds offer cheaper emerging markets exposure than the ＳＢＩ－ＥＸＥ－ｉ新興国株式ファンド — the ＳＢＩ－ＥＸＥ－ｉつみたて新興国株式ファンド and the 楽天新興国株式インデックスファンド.

Dan wrote: ↑Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:03 pm It seems two newly launched funds offer cheaper emerging markets exposure than the ＳＢＩ－ＥＸＥ－ｉ新興国株式ファンド — the ＳＢＩ－ＥＸＥ－ｉつみたて新興国株式ファンド and the 楽天新興国株式インデックスファンド.

The UFJ and Nissei funds? Thanks for the heads up.

Tony wrote: ↑Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:29 pm Living in Japan, and likely retiring here (almost 0% chance of retiring in the US as I'm not American), means I would like a Japan domiciled fund. This removes the currency risk of holding USD assets, it removes the currency conversion cost for buying in USD, it let's me trade real time (when buying ETFs, so I don't have to wait for the NYSE to open), and I don't have to pay a witholding tax.

I've seen this withholding tax mentioned a couple of times and am somewhat confused by it.

Is there a decent summary of it somewhere? The best I have found is this: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answer ... enttax.asp

I'm not clear on how this is reflected in costs of the average diversified index fund that includes US stocks. Is it wrapped into the management fee or does it get deducted when dividends are generated?

Say for example the rakuten vanguard etf funds mentioned in this post: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=60
Would one pay dividends tax to the US on this? Or is that included in the extra fees that rakuten takes? The prospectus did not seem to warn of additional taxation, the taxation at the end only lists the japanese 20% capital gains tax.

If I was to exchange some $ and invest it in vanguard offerings, would rakuten automatically take out the withholding from the dividends(as they do with the japanese taxation part) or would I have to somehow report this myself?

Would there be any downside to investing in low-dividend US growth stocks since it's the dividends that are taxed and not the capital gains?

Does any of this apply to buying us bonds? Unfortunately the books I have read have been written by americans for residents, so it's hard to understand how a lot of this translates to outside the US...

jcc, as far as I understand it, dividends are taxed when they are given out. So for non-residents outside of the US, 30% will be withheld. Meaning if you are holding, say, a vanguard ETF world ETF, all of the total dividends paid out will have tax withheld. Where as if you buy a similar word ETF domiciled in Japan, only the US holdings portion of the dividends has that tax withheld. As for bonds/bond funds, as far as I can tell out, the dividend payouts for those would also have 30% withheld if they originate from the US.

Tony wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:16 pm jcc, as far as I understand it, dividends are taxed when they are given out. So for non-residents outside of the US, 30% will be withheld. Meaning if you are holding, say, a vanguard ETF world ETF, all of the total dividends paid out will have tax withheld. Where as if you buy a similar word ETF domiciled in Japan, only the US holdings portion of the dividends has that tax withheld. As for bonds/bond funds, as far as I can tell out, the dividend payouts for those would also have 30% withheld if they originate from the US.

That is my understanding as well, except that residents of Japan pay a special US withholding tax of 'only' 10%. This is added to the 20% Japanese tax, but you can claim the 10% back on your tax return.

This is a great thread! Really useful info. I don't know why it's taken me so long to start looking at the forum properly. Anyway, I'm happy I did!

My current NISA looks like this:

野村コア３０ 1311 東証 ¥31,040
ＭＸ海外株式 1550 東証 ¥44,940
ＳＰＤＲ５百1557 東証 ¥404,600

I know it's not particularly well balanced at the moment but to be honest I'm not an investing guru and don't really wish to be one so I've kept it simple. I also have Matsui Shoken mutual funds, as well as THEO and iDeco (maxed out) so I'm diversifying that way. I've been in Japan since 2001 and am staying here.

Are there any recommendations as to what you would change? Should I add some Japanese or international bonds? I use Matsui Securities. https://www.matsui.co.jp/index.html

Like a lot of other here I own:

1550 developed world fund 46%
1348 Japan Topix fund 26%
1681 emerging markets fund 26%

cash 2%


I don't hold any bonds at the moment but will in the future if they become a better deal.

At the moment I want to own more emerging markets and less Topix so I'm dollar cost averaging monthly until I'm happy with the allocation.
I'm always looking for cheaper funds if anyone has recommendations? Does anybody know why 1681 doesn't pay dividends? I don't like the idea of some fund manager siphoning them off the top!

TokyoTower wrote: ↑Fri Mar 23, 2018 6:30 am At the moment I want to own more emerging markets and less Topix so I'm dollar cost averaging monthly until I'm happy with the allocation.
I'm always looking for cheaper funds if anyone has recommendations? Does anybody know why 1681 doesn't pay dividends? I don't like the idea of some fund manager siphoning them off the top!

There was a thread on here about 1681. Here it is. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=110&hilit=1681
Basically, not really sure where the dividends go and it also seems to underperform compared to other ETFs.

I started off buying ETFs too, but I think mutual funds are the way to go. They're more tax efficient and you can DCA into them daily, weekly or monthly. The expense ratios are not any more than ETFs.

Cheap index funds like Nissei, Tawara, and E-Maxis Slim are all cheap choices.

Thanks for the information. Also that blog that is mentioned http://valavg.com/why-nikkoam-etf-is-wo ... rformance/ is really good. Interesting to read about investing from a Japanese perspective for once (using chrome translate!!)