Are you investing in Japan? If you are already, or were thinking about starting soon, a new law recently came into effect in Japan (the Kinyu Shohin Torikihi Ho, or Financial Instruments & Exchange Law) that might force some changes in dealings with your broker. Essentially, it aims to extend protections for investors for a wider range of sectors and financial products.
Practically speaking, it works like this: Sellers of securities like stocks, bonds, forex savings schemes, and other investments are now required to provide (at least once a year) clear explanations *on paper* of how their products work and the risks involved. Sellers must also ask clients what the purpose of their investments are (growth, savings for retirement etc), and are also obligated to be forthright in advertising these products as to the possible risks investors face (i.e. they might lose money!) in purchasing them.
This all emerged out of both the 2006 Livedoor scandal and a string of fraud cases involving elderly and/or other unsuitable investors being sold questionable products that clearly didn’t meet their needs, resulting in many billions of yen in losses. I personally heard the sad story of an older ‘friend of a friend’ who lost close to 10 million yen in foreign exchange options trading, which someone told her was ‘guaranteed’ to make money. Options trading, a rather complicated investment vehicle, is certainly not where a beginner should start.
So, where should a beginner investor look to put their money? What is safe? What has the best long-term performance? One of my favorite websites, Get Rich Slowly offered some excellent advice on the subject which can be boiled down to one word: indexing.
What is indexing? Essentially, this means placing your money in funds (or a portfolio) that track a particular target index, which is called a benchmark. The fund simply aims to achieve the same performance as the benchmark it tracks. Suppose, for example, that you want to invest in US stocks. You have a few choices:
(1) you can research one of the thousands of companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and other markets,
(2) you can choose one of the tens of thousands of actively -managed mutual funds (i.e . you pay a fund manager to actively invest the money for you),
or
(3) you can buy an index fund which tracks a typical US stock index (such as the Standard & Poor’s 500). If you chose the latter, you would not only save money in fees (on average, you pay 3.1% *more* for actively managed funds), but may also enjoy better returns over the long-term.
For some extended reading on why, take a trip to this 53-page PDF file.
(Yes, I’m asking you to read [or at least skim] a 50+ page document on investing. Why? If you are serious about making money investing in a simple manner, you’ll have to do a little research. Most people, interestingly, spend far much more time investigating their next PC or car purchase than their investments.)
After reading up on indexing, doing some financial planning, and determining your desired asset allocation, it’s time to start shopping for funds. If you have a US address or bank account, you can most likely set up an online brokerage account and purchase one of the funds recommended in Transparent Investing file. I recommend this approach, from a tax perspective, for US citizens. If you do not have this access, then you can ask your local broker to find you an index fund that tracks either a Japanese index (there are many Nikkei 225 or TOPIX ‘rendogata’ funds) or one for an overseas market. The term ‘index fund’ is known in Japanese in its katakana version (indekkusu faando), or is sometimes mistranslated as ‘toshi shintaku’ (which is the general name for an investment trust). Be sure and specify what you want!
If you are interested in the Vangaurd Funds listed in the PDF, check out Monex Securities. It is, apparently, the sole distributor of Vanguard Funds outside of the US, and offers a small cap index and total stock market index fund. It is a Japanese low-cost online stock brokerage that also offers a full range of other investments. Regrettably, there appears to be no English language support.
Those using this information for investment purposes do so at their own risk.
© 2007 Wendy J. Imura.