My Japanese Holdings in H1

In February this year, I documented my initial purchases of two Japanese small caps here and here. The initial reason was 1. the Japanese market is oversold, 2. the economy was due for a rebound. I think a lot of investors under-estimate how often the market will revert to the mean. I think Japan will rebound, maybe not to its 1989 glory, but it will get its day soon. And even if I am wrong, I have a big margin of safety with my two particular stocks.

At the time, I did not really know Abenomics, but Shinzo Abe the Japanese prime minister has had a great effect on the economy. The market has been up about 66% during his tenure — in local currency. However it is still a lot even in US currency terms. But whether Abenomics will help Japan in the long term is still unknown.

Abenomics has directly pushed the Japanese Yen from 80 yen per USD to 100 per USD. This dramatic change has made many big Japanese exporting companies profitable, such as Hitachi and Toyota. I have read, however, that the lower yen has not resulted in more export volumes. This is somewhat worrisome, as greater volume is what will drive growth for the longer term. Furthermore, many Japanese companies are repatriating money and assets from overseas because of the increased value of foreign currencies. This can dramatically effect profitability but only temporarily.

If I had time I would analyze the financial reports of major Japanese exporting companies to carefully analyze the recent effect of the lower yen. But I don't, so instead I just analysed the results my Japanese holdings in the first half year.

Firstly, Tachibana Eletech reported increased earnings for both quarters. Tachibana is a factory automation company that exports about 20% of sales, based on my estimates. The following shows their results for the first half fiscal year. The results were much better in the second quarter compared to the first. This may be a delayed reaction to Abenomics. Operationally the company is doing better although management is still concerned about the slowdown in China and rest of Asia. But a big chunk of the delta was non-core earnings. I grouped them as non-operational earnings and extraordinary earnings.

Secondly, Riken Keiki reported similar results for the two quarters; with the second quarter better than the first. Riken Keiki must export a large percentage of their products. I even see their products on ebay.

So operationally, both are better and the same period last year but Tachibana's results were greatly affected by non-core income. The operational aspect could be both directly the result of Abenomics or indirectly, such as a more positive economic outlook.

These two companies are up around 35% since I first wrote about them, in local currency terms. But I think they are still way undervalued, if one simply looks at the books. However, I do understand that they are at their current price mostly because of the Japanese economic climate. My biggest concern is the huge Japanese debt. This debt is owned by the Japanese people and Japanese companies. I am still figuring out how this will all play out. If the Japanese cannot service the debt, then Japanese will default to themselves, or the Japanese can depreciate their currency so that they can afford to service it. In the latter, more realistic case, the resulting inflation will cause their goods to be more competitive in the world. The key difference between Japan and other countries with high debt is that the world wants Japanese goods! This, in my opinion, will allow for stable calm devaluation of the Japanese Yen, if it does happen.

The conclusion is, I am still very much long my Japanese holdings. In fact, I even bought a new Japanese microcap: Fujimak (TSE:5965). I hope to post a about it soon.