Horizon Kinetics Launches Japan Owner Operator Exchange-Traded Fund (Ticker: JAPN)
NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / May 13, 2025 / Horizon Kinetics LLC announced the launch of its sixth exchange-traded fund (ETF), the actively managed Japan Owner Operator ETF(NASDAQ:JAPN). It began trading on the NASDAQ on May 13, 2025.JAPN …
NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / May 13, 2025 / Horizon Kinetics LLC announced the launch of its sixth exchange-traded fund (ETF), the actively managed Japan Owner Operator ETF(NASDAQ:JAPN). It began trading on the NASDAQ on May 13, 2025.
JAPN will be managed in accordance with the long-term, value-oriented, proprietary research-driven philosophy that has defined Horizon's other products for over 30 years. The ETF invests in Japanese companies-specifically, firms operated by individuals who have significant ownership positions in their companies.
JAPN aims to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing in the owner-operators who also have a high degree of management skills, specific industry knowledge, deep networks, and a strong commitment to long-term growth. This owner-operator factor is just about the only demonstrated, persistent way to solve the much-studied, never-cured agency and incentive alignment problem in public equities.
For those looking to get genuinely Japanese exposure, JAPN offers a way to invest alongside Japanese owner-operators, an entirely distinct return factor that can add functional-not merely semantic-diversification to a conventionally structured portfolio. The portfolio companies primarily do business in Japan, unlike the more global export-oriented firms that comprise popular Japan indexes, which are not really Japanese exposures.
"There is a recent development in Japan that the media in America has not picked up on: Japanese owner-entrepreneurs are emerging to break the rigid boundaries of their cultural norms," says Murray Stahl, the Founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer at Horizon Kinetics-and one of JAPN's three portfolio managers, along with colleagues Aya Weissman and Utako Kojima. "This group is naturally incentivized to deliver a high return on equity, which can often have predictive potential for superior shareholder return."
"In every market, there are swathes of inefficiency," says Weissman. "Sometimes it is information- and analysis-based. Often it is the liquidity divide between large multinationals and firms of insufficient size to interest indexation and large-scale investors. There are almost 4,000 listed companies in Japan, and only the smallest fraction-primarily multinationals-make it to the major indexes; this is the thumbnail picture of the Japan-top-heaviness conundrum. We see a significant investment opportunity under the hood."