My parents are both getting close to their 70s, and thanks to me, they have a lot of Japanese equities. Now I am questioning if I should ask them to sell everything…

I recently read a deeply fascinating interview in Diamond.jp featuring Tatsuro Kiyohara, a man often described as Japan’s legendary salaryman investor. Over a 25-year career, he turned a single fund into 93 times its original value, amassing a personal fortune of over 90 billion yen in the process. He is a master of bottom-fishing and finding deep value where others see nothing.

However, his core message in the Diamond.jp piece is surprisingly doompilled: If you are over 70 years old, you have absolutely no reason to hold Japanese stocks right now.

Kiyohara summed up his view of the current Japanese stock market with one phrase: “A star shines brightest before it burns out.”

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But after re-reading Thomas Piketty’s Capital, I think the real systemic disease is this: The return on capital (r) has outpaced economic growth (g) to such a degree that if you rely solely on a salary, you are becoming poorer each year.

But this is KonichiValue, and I focus on solutions. If the global game is rigged, is there a place where the math still works in your favor?

Enter Japan.

While the West drowns in service inflation and spiraling costs, Tokyo has emerged as an anomaly. It is the last developed market where the cost of a high-quality life has decoupled from the aggressive inflationary spirals of New York or London.

By applying a Piketty Mindset to the unique economic landscape of 2026 Japan, we can calculate a specific Financial Freedom Number, exactly how much capital you need to stop surviving and start living.

Executive Summary: The Tokyo Arbitrage

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As you might have heard, Japan has a very strong gift-giving culture. In fact, it is customary to bring a gift even when you’re just visiting someone’s home.

This custom has been carried over to the Japanese stock-market. If you own 100 stocks or more of a company, chances are high that you are eligible for a yearly gift.

These gifts are usually connected to the company’s core business, such as discounted airline tickets for owning ANA, or beer coupons for owning Asahi.

Get 25% off forever

However, sometimes the gifts are seemingly random. For example, if you own more than 100 shares of Japan Tobacco, you receive curry, instant noodles, rice and other food items.

How do you Receive Gifts for Owning Japanese Stocks?

There are four main steps to getting shareholder benefits:

1. Open a Japanese brokerage account

If you want to buy shares to receive shareholder gifts, you must first open an account with a securities company.

I have summarized a list of how to open a brokerage account and the best brokerage services here:

Konichi-Value

Guide to Start Investing Tax-Free in Japan

As you have scoured the internet to find this magnificent Japanese value-stock newsletter, chances are quite high that you are now looking to invest your hard earned cash into them. Sadly, as with everything in Japan there’s a multitude of things to consider before starting. Therefore, I have created this wonderful guide on how to start investing in Japa…

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4 years ago · 2 likes · 4 comments · Rei Saito

2. Find the shareholder gift you want

In order to maximize the fun of shareholder benefits, the most important thing is to find the perfect brand for you.

Here are some ways to choose a Kabunushi Yuutai" (株主優待) or shareholder benefit:

• Get rewards that interest you

• Choose a stock you can afford to buy

• A company with future potential and potential for growth

Of course, it is important whether the benefits are attractive or not, but it is also important to check whether the company has future potential at a price that can be purchased without overdoing it.

I will write a follow-up article on what the best gifts are you can receive from owning Japanese stocks. However, in the meantime, check out this website that ranks the top Kabunushi Yuutai" (株主優待) or shareholder benefits here.

3. Buy the required number of shares by the deadline

Simply owning shares does not necessarily mean that you will receive shareholder gifts, and you need to buy shares by the deadline set by each company.

There are three terms that you should know at a minimum when investing in preferred stocks:

• Date of vesting
  → The date when the right to receive shareholder gifts is determined.

• Last day with shareholder benefit rights
  → Last day when you can get the right to receive shareholder gifts if you buy shares.

• Ex- rights date
  → If you purchase shares after this date, you will not be entitled to receive shareholder gifts

In other words, if you want to receive shareholder gifts, you need to buy shares by the "last day with rights", which is two business days before the vesting date.

This is basically the same procedure as getting dividend in other countries. If you want to receive a preferential treatment from a company whose vesting date is September 30th (Monday), you should buy shares by September 26th (Thursday), two business days in advance. These dates are often clearly explained on companies’ investor relationship page.

4. Wait for the shareholder gift to be sent

Shareholder benefit products and tickets will be sent to your home at a later date.

However, it is rare that it will be shipped immediately after the rights are confirmed, and in most cases, it will be 2 to 3 months later.

You may be motivated to ask, "When will the shareholder benefits arrive?"

Example of Shareholder Gifts

Japan Ham (2282)

For owning 100 stocks, the meat processing company Japan Ham (also called NH Foods) gives you ¥3,000 worth of meat yearly.

Japan McDonald's Holdings (2702)

For owning 100 stocks, Macdonald’s Japan will give you six meal tickets (burgers, side menus, and drinks included) yearly.

ASICS (7936)

For owning 100 stocks, ASICS gives 10 discount coupons that offers a 20% discount on all items at ASICS managed stores.

Three Points to Note Before Going Bananas on Shareholder Gifts

1. Confirm whether the stock is a good investment

Don't make a stock-purchase decisions based solely on the shareholder gift. Instead, do your research of the company and consider whether it is attractive based on your business and financial situation.

However good the shareholder gift is, it will only represent a small benefit relative to the stock-price.

2. Beware that the shareholder gift might be dissolved

Recently, there has been many companies in Japan that has dissolved their gift-giving practices. Do remember that there is no obligation for companies to give shareholder gifts, and they can remove this perk any time they choose.

Therefore, if a gift sound too generous compared to its share price, it might be removed soon.

3. Double-check the required number of shares and number of years of holding

There are often set rules on the number of shares and the number of years you must hold the stock to receive shareholder gifts.

For example, if you invest in a company with a gift certificate as a preferential treatment, the amount you receive may differ depending on the number of shares as shown below.

• 100 shares or more but less than 500 shares
  → ¥1,000 gift certificate

• 500 shares or more but less than 1,000 shares
  → ¥3,000 gift certificate

• 1,000 shares or more
  → ¥5,000 gift certificate

Conclusion

And there you have it! The intriguing, fun, and frankly quite charming world of shareholder gifts in Japan. In a country where gift-giving is deeply ingrained in the culture, it's no surprise that this practice has found its way into the stock market as well. Who wouldn't want a bit of curry with their tobacco stocks or a side of airline tickets with their ANA shares?

However, let's not let the prospect of gifts cloud our investment judgment. Remember, investing in stocks is not a shopping spree, but a financial decision that requires careful consideration. The value of the gift should never outweigh the potential value and growth of the company itself. And as with all good things, these shareholder benefits may not last forever, so keep an eye out for changes in company policies.

In the end, these quirky shareholder gifts can add a little joy to the sometimes sterile world of investing. They remind us that stocks are not just about numbers on a screen but about being part of a company and sharing in its successes... and sometimes, that also means sharing in its curry, beer, and discount coupons.

So, the next time you're considering investing in Japanese stocks, why not add a little spice to your portfolio? But always remember to double-check the fine print and don't let the glitz of the gifts distract you from the real goal: finding valuable, sustainable investments. Happy investing, and may your portfolio be ever bountiful, both in dividends and in delightful surprises!

This is a very fair question, as it’s perhaps the most important thing to consider before buying a stock, and therefore I have created this article.

Fair/Intrinsic Value = A Stock’s True Price

As most of you know, I am at heart a value investor, and the most fundamental aspect of being a value investor is the belief that all stocks have an intrinsic value, or fair value, and sooner-or-later the stock-market will price a stock at that value.

Hence, the most important aspects of being a successful value investor is to figure out companies’ intrinsic stock-price and invest in the companies with a substantial discount to their fair value.

This “discount” is often referred to as a Margin of Safety (MOS) and is calculated by dividing the difference between a stock’s fair value and present value:

• Stock A currently trades at ¥4,015 and its fair value is estimated to be ¥8,786.32

• Hence, its Margin of Safety is: (8,786.32-4015=) 4,771.32/8,786.32 = 0.543 or 54.3%

Of course, nobody knows what the future holds, but the rule of thumb is; the more secure the company and its industry looks, the more likely it is that it will be priced at its fair value in the near future. Hence, your Margin of Safety (MOS) should reflect this by demanding the MOS to be high for risky companies and accepting a lower MOS for stable companies.

As a general rule of thumb, most value investors require at least a 20% MOS.

How to Calculate a Stock’s Fair/Intrinsic Value

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Why the madness?

Two reasons: First, I once interned for an Indian NGO that installs low‑cost loos for women in rural Bihar. Seeing sanitation move the needle on both dignity and public health hard‑wired a fascination with toilets into my brain. Second, I am circling TOTO stock for the KonichiValue model portfolio, and as any Lynch disciple knows, you do not buy a company until you kick its product harder than its marketing department ever would.

That is how last weekend found me and my Swedish friend Oskar (new house outside Stockholm, five years of Japan experience, zero patience for “dry wipe” hygiene) “toilet‑shopping” like an odd couple of bathroom sommeliers.

We toured over 10 showrooms on his time here in Japan and boy do we have results…

Smart‑toilet adoption is rocketing. Japan crossed the 80 percent household‑penetration line years ago, while US bidet sales have grown at least 20 percent every year since the pandemic.

For investors and homeowners alike the obvious question is: Which brand actually deserves your backside – and your capital?

Below are the results of our extended butt‑test, scored with all the kindness of a short seller.

Three brands made the cut: TOTO, LIXIL (INAX / Grohe / American Standard), and Duravit. We graded a flagship model and a cheaper “gateway drug” for each on comfort, tech, installation pain, and value.

Ten is perfect, one sends you crawling back to a chamber pot.

TOTO (Flagship: Neorest NX2. Mid-range: Retrofit Washlet S7A)

• Neorest NX2: comfort 10, tech 10, install 6, value 4.

  

• Washlet S7A: comfort 8, tech 8, install 10, value 8.

  

TOTO’s secret sauce is the geeky chemistry that outsiders never see. Ewater+, an electrolyzed rinse that sterilises the bowl after every flush, means fewer harsh cleaners; Actilight bakes away grime with ultraviolet light on the ultra‑premium versions.

Neorest NX2 is literally the best toilet money can buy! No other OEM showed comparable lab documentation. On the downside, the NX2 lists for the price of a used car and weighs enough that you must pay a plumber to shoehorn it into a mid-sized bathroom.

The Washlet S7A seat, by contrast, could be slapped onto Oskar existing Drake bowl in twenty minutes and instantly halved his future toilet‑paper budget (yes, you still need to wipe with a bide, just way less).

LIXIL (Flagship: Satis G. Luxury: DXV AT200. Mid‑range: Advanced Clean 100 via American Standard)

• Lixil Satis G: comfort 9, tech 10, install 6, value 6.

  

• American standard: DXV AT200: comfort 8, tech 9, install 7, value 7.

  

• American Standard Advanced Clean: comfort 7, tech 8, install 8, value 9.

  

Foam Cushion that kills splashback, Air Shield that traps odour inside the bowl, dual nozzles for gender‑specific cleansing – the Satis line is loaded. Honestly though, it is almost as much as TOTO NX2, and not nearly as good, so just skip it if you have this much money to splurge on a toilet.

DXV delivers almost everything TOTO offers without the sticker shock, and it looks like a normal toilet – an underrated virtue when spouses are voting. But the lid feels thinner than Japanese rivals and the dryer blows lukewarm at best.

The Advanced Clean 100 is much more interesting. Unfortunately for Lixil, the brand schizophrenia is real: In Tokyo it is INAX, in Berlin it morphs into Grohe Sensia, in Chicago it becomes American Standard SpaLet. Good luck Googling spare parts.

Still, the Advanced Clean 100 gives you auto‑open, auto‑flush and a five‑level seat heater under three‑grand and Good Housekeeping called it the “Most Versatile” pick of 2025. However, seat height is a low‑rider 15 inches, so Oskar (six‑foot‑two) vetoed it after one squat.

Public‑health footnote: LIXIL’s SATO division has already improved sanitation for more than 35 million people and is targeting 100 million by 2025 (SATO - A better life. Every day.). The fanciest bidet on earth still flushes into the same global sewer of problems that low‑income regions face. Any brand closing that gap earns extra karma in my DCF model.

Duravit (High-end: SensoWash Starck f Plus. Mid-range: SensoWash Classic seat)

• Duravit Starck f: comfort 10, tech 9, install 2, value 5.

  

• Duravit SensoWash Classic: comfort 8, tech 7, install 6, value 6.

  

This is the classic high-end European toilet style: Modernism 101. Wall‑hung elegance, app presets, energy‑saving heated seat, and HygieneGlaze ceramic that nukes bacteria. Amazing for looks, less so for repairs… First you need to hide all the plumbing in the wall, and second, you need to break that wall if anything breaks.

The cheaper Classic seat clips onto any Duravit bowl but ditches auto‑open and full seat heating and you are still paying a design premium. Pure eye‑candy.

What did Oskar finally buy?

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It is hard to stay positive in a world like this…

No matter where you are based, my fellow reader, it is indisputable that inequality is growing and things are getting less and less affordable for the common man. And with the breakneck speed of AI, threatening almost any job on the planet, it feels ever more likely that we’ll all soon be cutting the toenails of the billionaire-class just to survive…

Why bother saving for retirement if you’re convinced you’ll be replaced by a bunch of neural networks next week?

There is a place that still offers a slice of hope for those wanting to dodge eternal wage slavery: Japan. And if you do it right, especially if you’ve got a bit of a nest egg saved up (either from your home country or from hard work in Japan), you might find yourself living a surprisingly comfortable life here, maybe even able to retire one day.

Why Japan of all places?

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We’re deep into the start of the tax season in Japan now, and while the holiday season of giving might be behind us, the spirit of helping thos…

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In Japan, navigating the sea of utility providers, each peddling their own package deals, all in very convoluted Japanese, can feel like overwhelming.

The thing they don’t tell you is that it’s almost always cheapest to make your own bundle, especially if you use all the bait offers providers use to reel you in (which I will share links to here).

I've si…

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Konichivalue Screener

1.18MB ∙ XLSX file

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• 00:00 Intro

• 00:25 The Goal

• 03:14 The Tools I'm Using

• 10:33 Using the Tools

• 13:58 Stock Picking!

• 17:22 Deep Dive into a Value Stock

• 23:33 Outro

The Swedish Investor screener video:

An explanation of Joel Greenblatt’s Magic formula here

Summary: How to Find Undervalued Stocks in Japan

• The video presents a method for identifying undervalued stocks in the Japanese market, emphasizing the use of specific tools, screening processes, and deep analysis of potential stocks.

Tools and Criteria for Screening:

• Main Tools Used: The magic formula by Joel Greenblatt, inspired adjustments by the Swedish investor, Refinitiv Eikon (a comprehensive equity screening tool), Excel for data manipulation, and general web browsers for additional research.

• Key Screening Criteria: Growth, Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Enterprise Value to Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EV/EBIT), Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio, and insider activities are the main factors considered. Each factor is assigned a weight in the overall evaluation of a company (see KonichiValue screener Excel sheet for full formula)

Screening Process:

1. Initial Screening: Using Refinitiv Eikon, companies are filtered by sector exclusions, P/E ratio boundaries (between 5 and 25), and positive operating income in recent years. This process narrows down potential investment targets.

2. Data Analysis: The extracted data is then analyzed in Excel, utilizing a template inspired by the Swedish investor, to rank companies based on the key criteria mentioned above.

Deep Dive Analysis:

• I select Naigai Trans line and Value Commerce for a detailed examination. This involves checking for reliable earnings, adjusting revenue and operating margins to more sustainable figures, and investigating the company's qualitative aspects through various resources, including the Buffet Code website for ownership and management details.

Qualitative Analysis and Conclusions:

• The deep dive includes looking into the company's earnings reports, management forecasts, competition, strategic costs, and any signs of declining business advantage.

• For Value Commerce I conclude that despite initial quantitative attractiveness, qualitative factors such as increasing competition and strategic challenges may render a company less appealing for investment.

Lessons and Advice:

• The video emphasizes the importance of thorough research, combining quantitative screening with qualitative analysis to understand a business deeply before investing.

• It suggests that good investments require examining a company's reports, industry news, product testing, and understanding the business model.

• The presenter offers resources and templates for viewers to conduct their own research and underscores the availability of various tools for value investing beyond those used in the video.

Conclusion:

• Finding undervalued stocks is a rigorous process that involves a blend of quantitative screening and qualitative analysis. By meticulously examining a company's financials, market position, and future prospects, investors can identify true value investments in the Japanese market or elsewhere.

Happy New Year, investors! 2024 is finally here, and with it comes the game-changing new 2024 NISA (Small Investment Tax Exemption System).

We've all been eagerly waiting for this, and trust me, it's worth the hype! Japan is now home to perhaps the world's greatest tax-free investment savings account, and I'm super excited!

I've gathered all your burning…

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As this year ends, marked by unimaginable global challenges, I feel a deep sense to do whatever little good thing I can.

This Christmas, I'm turning my attention to some inspiring charities in Japan. They've been beacons of hope for so many people here amid these tough times. I'd love to share their stories with you and perhaps inspire a wave of kindness…

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Which fund is best for you if you want exposure to the Japanese economy at a cheap price?

Turns out this question is very much dependent on where you are located in.

Therefore, I have collected the top fund in the top 8 countries my readers are located in (on order of most to least readers):

Top countries:

1. USA

2. Japan

3. India

4. Canada

5. United Kingdom

6. Brazil

7. Australia

8. Sweden

Top Fund per Country:

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Welcome to "Credit Card Master," the series!

My mission? To uncover the crème de la crème of plastic money in Japan.

Expect the lowdown on everything - from cashback perks, fee structures to the nitty-gritty of getting these cards (yep, including the hurdles for foreigners), and all the flashy benefits in between.

Our first stop? The famous Rakuten Card!

T…

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The market has been shaky in the past couple of months to say the least. This has made many of you lose a lot of money on ill-timed bets on stock- and market moves. I am here to tell you that there is better way to invest in times like this.

Often when I talk to both seasoned and beginner investors, they tell me the same things: “The market is so hot rig…

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The hometown tax program (hereafter referred to as the Furusato Nōzei program) was first announced 2007 as a way to fight the deterioration of rural Japan. The program encourages peopl…

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When I analyze stocks, I put a lot of emphasis on their Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio:

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Sadly, as with everything in Japan there’s a multitude of things to consider before starting. Therefore, I have created this wonderful guide on how to start investing in Japa…

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I know many of you do not have direct access to Japanese stocks, but as you are reading this, you clearly want to invest in the Japanese economy.

I have some great news for you: Almost all stock-brokers provide index funds in Japan’s biggest indexes,,the Nikkei 225 and the TOPIX.

These are indexes of the most valuable companies in Japan, and are basically…

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