iShares MSCI Japan UCITS ETF

What this fund is

iShares MSCI Japan UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker CSJP (ISIN IE00B53QDK08). 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. Rather than a manager picking stocks, it simply replicates the MSCI Japan index — the passive, low-cost approach, and its largest holdings include MITSUBISHI UFJ FINANCIAL GROUP INC, TOKYO ELECTRON LTD and TOYOTA MOTOR CORP. With about 175 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 29.7%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names.

Its biggest country exposures are ~99.9% Japan and ~0.1% United States. Its heaviest sectors are ~23.3% 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 an accumulating share class: dividends are rolled straight back in, compounding your returns rather than landing in your account as cash.

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 21.9% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality. It launched in 2010. 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.)