iShares MSCI Japan UCITS ETF USD (Dist)

What this fund is

iShares MSCI Japan UCITS ETF USD (Dist) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker IJPN (ISIN IE00B02KXH56). In a single purchase you get a diversified basket of holdings rather than a stake in just one business. In plain terms it is about owning small slices of companies, so you share in their growth when they do well — and their falls when they don't, spread across its target market. It passively tracks the MSCI Japan index — mirroring that market instead of paying a manager to pick winners, which keeps costs low, and its largest holdings include MITSUBISHI UFJ FINANCIAL GROUP INC, TOKYO ELECTRON LTD and TOYOTA MOTOR CORP. With about 176 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 29.8%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names.

By geography it is weighted towards ~100% Japan and ~0.3% Ireland. By industry it concentrates most in ~23.2% Industrials and ~20.9% Technology. It is commonly used to tilt a portfolio towards one market, usually alongside broader, more global funds rather than on its own. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.12% a year — about €12 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund. It is a distributing share class — dividends are paid to you as cash rather than reinvested, and over the last year it paid out roughly 2.89% (its trailing yield).

It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in Ireland and UCITS-regulated, a European standard built to protect everyday investors and trades in USD. Its price has swung about 23.2% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality. It launched in 2004. As with any investment, its value can go down as well as up, and past performance is not a guide to future results. (Fund data sourced from iShares.)