iShares MSCI Japan Small Cap UCITS ETF

What this fund is

iShares MSCI Japan Small Cap UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker ISJP (ISIN IE00B2QWDY88). One trade buys a whole basket of holdings, so your money is spread out instead of riding on a single company. 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 KOKUSAI ELECTRIC CORP, TAIYO YUDEN LTD and ROHM LTD. It holds around 797 positions (the ten largest ≈ 8%), spreading risk so no single holding decides your outcome.

By geography it is weighted towards ~100% Japan, ~0% United States and ~0% United Kingdom. By industry it concentrates most in ~25.4% Industrials and ~15.8% 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 0.58% a year — about €58 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 1.55% (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 26.6% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality. It launched in 2008. 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.)