iShares MSCI Japan Screened UCITS ETF

What this fund is

iShares MSCI Japan Screened UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker SDJP (ISIN IE00BFNM3M05). 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 follows the MSCI Japan index (passive investing): it tracks the market rather than relying on a manager, keeping running costs down, and its largest holdings include MITSUBISHI UFJ FINANCIAL GROUP INC, TOKYO ELECTRON LTD and TOYOTA MOTOR CORP. With about 159 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 31.7%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names.

By geography it is weighted towards ~100% Japan and ~0% United States. Its heaviest sectors are ~22.7% Industrials and ~22.4% 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 0.15% a year — about €15 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund. Income such as dividends is paid out to you as cash (a distributing share class), and over the last year it paid out roughly 0.68% (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 28.6% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. It launched in 2018. 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.)