Here are the shortlisted mutual funds and ETFs:
1) 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
2) 1550 (seems to be popular here)
3) 1680
5) The new VT proxy from Rakuten
First, I've tried to compare fees and were quite surprized, because usually they say that an advantage of ETF comparing to MF is low expense ratio. But that is not what I see...
If I understand correctly, than the expense ratio they show on SBI or Rakuten fund pages are not correct, and one has to look at the fund datasheet for other fees, especially 実質的な負担 for fund-of-fund schemes.
For examlple:
1) 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(https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/fund/ ... 90C0009VE0) - on Rakuten page is says thay ER is 0.216%, but in fund datasheet there are additional 0.0108%, so 0.2268% in total.
With ER it it more tricky:
2) 1550: on SBI page is says 0.15%, but in the fund datasheet (http://www.am.mufg.jp/pdf/koumokuromi/1 ... 170908.pdf, p.13) it's 0,162% (due to taxes, I guess) and additional 投資信託証券 0.108%, which gives total 0.27%. And then there is this 実質的な負担 0.27% which, I assume, is not an additional fee, but just a sum of the two previous fees (can someone confirm this???). And then there are その他 0.0081, 0.0081 and 0.05, which gives total ER of 0.3362%.
3) 1680 (https://www.nikkoam.com/products/etf/li ... ko/outline): similar to 1550, the initial 0.15% becomes 0.37%. WTF???
The main question here is whether 実質的な負担 is the final total ER or whether it has to be added to all other fees???
Second, I've tried to compare dividends. Since all the funds follow same index, I assumed that dividends should be almost same, but for some reason the SBI search tool (which doesn't work today because of maintenance, so no link) shows ~2.5% for 1680, but only 1.5% for 1550. Why???
I tried to lookup dividends in their datasheets, but only 1680 shows 分配金利回り 2.19%, while 1550 shows only the actual 分配金 in yen, and no percentage.
When comparing 分配金 for 1550 and 1680 (http://www.am.mufg.jp/fund/181550.html#tab_outline vs https://www.nikkoam.com/products/etf/li ... -ko/bunpai), it's 1,880円 for 100 shares (100口) for 1550 and 50円80銭 for 1 share for 1680, i.e. 1880 vs 5080 - more than twofold difference! How could it be for the same index??
I couldn't find any dividend info for Nissei fund (I understand, that it is 配当見込み, but still there should be info about those reinvested dividends somewhere).
So if my calculation of ER are correct, than ETF have much higher ER than MF.
But even more important than that, if 配当見込み thing for MF means that the dividends are reinvested BEFORE tax (actually, I couldn't find any source in Japanese which clearly says that, and my level of Japanese is not good enough to read all the fine print, so it would be great if someone could confirm that it is correct), then outside of NISA MF would be much better even if it had higher ER.
For example, provided that totally 500 man yen is invested in the fund and 10 man + dividends are reinvested monthly, and ER are as calculated above, dividends are 1.5%, ETF purchase fee is 150 yen, then total yearly fees + taxes for MF would be 1.1 man yen, and for ETF - a whopping 4.5 (a half due to the taxes on dividends!).
By the way, while reading other posts, I noticed than people often think that if they choose an option to automatically reinvest dividends, than they won't have to pay taxes on them, but I think it is misunderstanding. Those dividends will be reinvested after taxes (when outside of NISA). Only the 配当見込み kind of MF reinvest before taxes .
Now, with regard to this new Rakuten proxy VT - the ER is 0,2296, so better than 1550 or 1689, but worse than Nissei fund, and it doesn't reinvest dividends before TAX, and there will be additional 10% US tax on them. Plus, it doesn't have the advantage of foreign fund for those who plan to leave Japan in future. So, good try, but no, thanks.
So far it seems that 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 beats hands down Rakuten VT and the ETF, but could there be any flaw in my calculations?
Other questions are: why such huge difference in dividends for the same index, does 配当見込み really reinvest before tax, and how to find out the reinvested dividends for 配当見込み funds?
Thanks to all who read till the end
