Moving investments out of Japan

[TokyoBoglehead]

Thanks all for your advice! I have completed my transition from e-maxis slim mutual funds to ETFs on the TSE!

Here's what I did:

- I sold all of my mutual funds, over the course of about a week, a few weeks ago. I now have an entry in "realised profit/loss" for the first time.
- I bought a range of ETFs that I felt gave me a similar exposure over the last week or so totalling a similar amount to what I had originally in mutual funds.
- I noticed (via an app) that I should expect to receive more dividends than before. Many of these ETFs pay dividends, whereas the e-maxis slim funds would reinvest dividends automatically. The funds are likely more tax efficient, and don't require you to have enough to buy the minimum units. This is covered somewhere in another post. But this gives me (I hope) the freedom to move them to another broker later.

The ETFs I chose, in case you're interested are as follows. As you might expect, the majority is in 2559 (maxis all country).

1348 ＭＡＸＩＳトピックスＥＴＦ (TOPIX index)
1478 ＩＳＭＳＣＩ高配当ＥＴＦ (high dividend paying Japanese stocks)
1660 ＭＸＳ高利Ｊリート (Japanese REIT)
2511 ＮＦ外債ヘッジ無 (Foreign bonds, unhedged)
2515 ＮＦ外ＲＥＩＴへ無 (Foreign REIT, unhedged)
2520 ＮＦ新興国株式ヘ無 (Developing economy stocks, unhedged)
2559 ＭＸＳ全世界株式 (All country stocks)
2858 ＧＸ日経カバコ (Nikkei covered calls)

Great, it seems logical. More flexibility. Are you going to try to open a broker in your home country? You probably will not be able to transfer these funds out of Japan, but you can sell in Japan and rebuy in your home country gradually to reduce getting left behind by market movement.

A few comments on your funds, to simply things a bit.

1. Edit- It seems your subsequent assessment was right but your initial description was wrong. Thus the confusion.
2. If you have 1348, no need for 1478 and 2858

You should definitely be able to find a TOPIC, MSCI ACWI and matching REIT and BOND funds in your home country.

[aussieinjapan]

Great, it seems logical. More flexibility. Are you going to try to open a broker in your home country? You probably will not be able to transfer these funds out of Japan, but you can sell in Japan and rebuy in your home country gradually to reduce getting left behind by market movement.

A few comments on your funds, to simply things a bit.

1. 2520 is 2559-EM. Very redundant IMO.
2. If you have 1348, no need for 1478 and 2858

You should definitely be able to find a TOPIC, MSCI ACWI and matching REIT and BOND funds in your home country.

I asked Monex Securities Australia (Monex Japan is their parent company) and they claim to be able to move (for a fee) the Japanese and US stocks I held in Rakuten Securities at the time I asked about it. I (maybe stupidly) haven't confirmed about the ETFs. I'm assuming anything listed on the TSE is fine, but that's a big assumption I guess. They already confirmed they can't move mutual funds, which is why I started doing this in the first place.

Thanks for your tips about redundant ETFs!

I didn't realise 2559's EM selection was 2520. I guess I buy into that when I feel like weighting EM more. But investing only in 2559 is probably safer. Let 2559 decide how much to put into EM based on market cap.

I also hadn't thought much about the overlap of 1348, 1478 and 2858. 1348 I bought because it tracks TOPIX, 1478 for it's dividend (it should be higher than the TOPIX index dividend), and 2858 is very new but based on what I've seen QYLD do (same company and similar strategy, but for the NASDAQ), I wanted some income from covered calls. But you're right in that they are all tied to the TOPIX/Nikkei, so they are all correlated.

[TokyoBoglehead]

I didn't realise 2559's EM selection was 2520. I guess I buy into that when I feel like weighting EM more. But investing only in 2559 is probably safer. Let the index decide how to weight it based on market cap.

To clariffy

2559 All Country
Edit- It seems your subsequent assessment was right but your initial description was wrong. Thus the confusion.

EM is only 12% of 2559.

I also hadn't thought much about the overlap of 1348, 1478 and 2858. 1348 I bought because it tracks TOPIX, 1478 for it's dividend (it should be higher than all the stocks the index), and 2858 is very new but based on what I've seen QYLD do (same company and similar strategy, but for the NASDAQ), I wanted some income from covered calls. But you're right in that they are all tied to the TOPIX/Nikkei, so they are all correlated.

Total your choice, but your capping the upside with covered call etfs.

Good luck with the process, I am sure other Australians would love a write up after you are through.

[aussieinjapan]

To clariffy

2559 All Country
2520 All Country (MINUS) Emerging markets, AKA developed country

EM is only 12% of 2559.

Total your choice, but your capping the upside with covered call etfs.

Good luck with the process, I am sure other Australians would love a write up after you are through.

Thanks. Perhaps I mistook 2520 for EM. If it's developed country, then yes huge overlap with all country! According to the info I found it tracks MSCI-EM. But anyway, I think in general I'll stay away from making large bets on EM or particular global regions and move that into all country.
https://nextfunds.jp/en/lineup/2520/

With covered call ETFs, I know they aren't very popular because covered calls limit upside. But, I've been extremely happy that I've gotten a decent amount of QYLD before the US market started dropping and the yen became worthless, because I have a monthly income of USD from that at about 10% pa, which is of course not as good as the market historically, but it is good if the market goes sideways or down like it is now. I don't want to make it a big part of my portfolio, maybe a lot less than 10%. I'm trying to create a portfolio that's mostly focussed on growth (I don't intend to retire for 20 years, but I wouldn't say no to FIRE if I could afford it at some point), but still returns 4-5% in dividends so that at some point I could use that for income without needing to sell. I guess the standard financial advice is to do that rebalancing later on closer to retirement. I am weighting quite heavily into all country, but these other things are experiments really to keep me interested.

I guess I've gotten far off the original topic. Thanks so much for your ETF advice. I'm learning as I go here. I'm still kicking myself for not starting ten plus years ago. The main reason I didn't was I was afraid to use Japanese online brokers with my more limited Japanese skills at the time. It turns out that it's not that bad after all. That decision alone meant I have a lot less than what I would have if I'd been investing all through the bull run of the 2010s! Pretty funny, I could have never predicted that the biggest factor in what my savings look like today wasn't career choice or how hard I worked, but that I was too scared to buy stocks or funds in Japanese.

[TokyoBoglehead]

2520 ＮＦ新興国株式ヘ無 (Developing economy stocks, unhedged)

Edit- It seems your subsequent assessment was right but your initial description was wrong. Thus the confusion.

ＮＥＸＴ ＦＵＮＤＳ 新興国株式・ＭＳＣＩエマージング・マーケット・インデックス（為替ヘッジなし）連動型上場投信
NEXT FUNDS Emerging Markets Equity Index MSCI Emerging Markets Index (no currency hedging)

[aussieinjapan]

2520 ＮＦ新興国株式ヘ無 (Developing economy stocks, unhedged)

Edit- It seems your subsequent assessment was right but your initial description was wrong. Thus the confusion.

ＮＥＸＴ ＦＵＮＤＳ 新興国株式・ＭＳＣＩエマージング・マーケット・インデックス（為替ヘッジなし）連動型上場投信
NEXT FUNDS Emerging Markets Equity Index MSCI Emerging Markets Index (no currency hedging)

Thanks, sorry about that. I meant developing (not developed) economies, in other words emerging markets. Oops!

[aussieinjapan]

Quick update for those that are interested. I recently emailed Monex Australia again to check in and they gave me a short reply that due to changes in regulations that can no longer transfer assets from Japan to Australia.

So, I'm now emailing Interactive Brokers. I guess I should have started with them It does seem possible from their FAQ and what I have heard so far, but I will need to transfer everything from IB Japan to whatever company manages Australia (I guess the global IB).

IB say that they can transfer from another Japanese broker, Japanese stocks, but only an approved list of US ETFs, listed here http://www.interactivebrokers.co.jp/dow ... -japan.pdf. So I would need to sell other US stocks. There's more info in their FAQ about moving to IBSJ https://www.interactivebrokers.co.jp/en ... hp?f=50716. From IBSJ, I should be able to move to IBLLC when moving to Australia.