Quick Pitch: Totenko Co (TYO 8181) - Nanocap Operator of Banquet Halls and Restaurants With Tourism Tailwind and Profit Inflection Trading at 5.3x Forward P/E and 0.36x P/B

Takigami Steel Construction (TYO 5918) - A Portfolio of Public Securities + Rental Real Estate Worth 3x Market Cap (With an Activist Investor)

Mansei Corporation (TYO 7565): A Consistently Profitable 8 P/E Net-Net That Did a Massive 29% Share Buyback—and No One Noticed

Investing Alongside Beji Sasaki: Japan's Unconventional Corporate Raider and Value Investor

Sanko Techno (TYO 3435) - A Near Net-Net $60m Niche Manufacturer of Construction Materials with 40% Market Share, 5 P/E, 3.3% Dividend, and 10.5% RoE: #1 Market share in its core business in Japan. Profitable for 20 of the last 21 years. 13 dividend hikes in the last 14 years.

Sanyo Industries (TYO 5958) - $60m Net-Net With 5 P/E, 3.8% Dividend, That's Buying Back Shares: A Construction materials company that manufactures flooring, roofing, rooftop ventilators, earth quake resistant components, and more.

Yakult Honsha (TYO 2267) a $5.6B Premier Japanese Consumer Staple Brand with 25 Years of Profitability and Steady Growth Trading at 8.3x EV/EBITDA with Improving Capital Returns: Positive Carry (Dividend > cost to borrow JPY), Improving Capital Returns, and Cheap vs Global Peers

Sohu.com Inc (Nasdaq: SOHU): A Net-Net with $1.3B in Cash and Valuable Real Estate ($400m+) Trading at $460m Market Cap with a $150m Buyback: The cash is off-shore and founder owns 1/3 of outstanding shares and has bought back stock at higher prices.

Cover Corp (TYO 5253) - High Growth Opportunity in the Expanding VTuber Sector: Trades at a 35% discount to its primary competitor despite superior underlying growth in viewership. 24x Forward P/E may seem expensive, but its under monetized and the industry is growing rapidly.

Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha (TYO 9362) - A Nanocap Logistics Company Efficiently Operating at 9% RoE, 6.8 P/E, and 4.5% Dividend at 0.6x BV / 0.39x ADJ TBV: A Short Sum of the Parts Analysis of A $18m Nanocap Logistics Company with 10 yr Net Income and Book Value CAGR of 8% and 9%.

Akatsuki Inc (TYO 3932): A $188M Net Net Japanese Game Developer with Ambitious Growth Plans, Trading at 0.75x Book (0.55x Adjusted), 11x Operating Profits, and a Decade of Profitability: Recently formed a capital alliance with Sony (6758) and Koei Tecmo (TYO 3635) validate development capabilities.

Nissin Corp (9066) - A Dirt Cheap $400m JP Logistics Company That Bought Back 24% Of Shares Trading at 6x EPS, 5%+ Dividend, and 0.7x Book: A rock solid logistics company that only ever lost money twice (2001 and 2009) over the last 40 years trading at dirt cheap valuations and returning cash

Okayamaken Freight Transportation (TYO 9063) - A Nanocap Logistics Company With A Lot of Undervalued Land at 0.3x P/B, 9x P/E, and 14 Years of Consistent Profitability : Last year they sold 2 properties with a book value of ¥172m for ¥2,552m. That's a gain of ¥2,379m on a 7.2b JPY market cap. They still have ¥18b of land on their balance sheet.

I Emailed my Portfolio Companies Asking About TSE Reform Compliance. Here Are Their Responses: As I’ve shared on Substack and X, I’ve been sending emails to every company in my Japanese portfolio that hasn’t complied with the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) request to improve corporate governance. It’s a simple, polite email asking companies why they aren’t on the exchange’s monthly published

Asahi Kagaku Kogyo - A Nanocap $12m Japanese Net Net That Owns Land Near Shanghai Worth ~5x its Market Cap: An interesting deep value opportunity, but one I ultimately am not very excited about

Japanese Reforms Slowly Kicking In: "Investors in Japan had it easy. They could buy net-nets at under 8 P/E with 20+ years of profitability. Of course they’re going to make outsized returns" -Future Value Investors

The Cheap Japanese Basket: Year-End Portfolio Review and Reasons Why I Remain Bullish: I initially began my cheap Japanese basket in March 2023 and now that 2023 has come to an end, let’s take a look at how everything worked out. But first, a quick summary of the themes in my basket and why I’m broadly still bullish on deep value Japan.

4 New Deep Value Double Net Net Additions To The Cheap Japanese Basket: I’ve added several deep value names to my Japanese portfolio over the last few months. While there are many net-nets in Japan, the names below are either double net nets or close, meaning if these stocks doubled, they would still be net nets. There are cheaper names in Japan, but I’m filtering a bit for profitability. Since I don’t know when value will be realized, I don’t want to own melting ice cubes. The names below and j

Asagami Corporation (TYO 9311) is an Example of Widespread Undervaluation of Land on Japanese Balance Sheets. Disparity Between Book & Market Value is 3x Market Cap On Just 3 Properties: Asagami Corporation (TYO 9311) owns 3 warehouses on Tokyo Harbor with land carried on its books at ¥7.9 billion. These properties alone are likely worth closer to ¥29.5 billion. These assets account for less than half of the company’s land assets, but are worth multiples of the current market cap of just ¥7.16B.

Kawagishi Bridge Works (TYO 5921) - A Deep Value Double Net Net (MCAP $62.5m, NCAV $123m) Construction Steel Producer at 8.3x P/E: Kawagishi Bridge Works is absurdly cheap and almost a double net net (NCAV $123m vs $62.5m market cap). Business quality is low (they manufacture steel construction products), but company has been pretty consistently profitable and has grown tangible book value at 5.46% CAGR over the last 10 years.

The Keihin Co (TYO 9312) - A Consistently Profitable and Growing Small Cap Logistics Company at 0.5x P/TBV and 11% RoE: This is a quick profile of one of the many Japanese stocks that have caught my interest and are in my cheap Japanese basket. I’ll be doing more frequent short write ups on names in this basket over the coming months. The Keihin Co is a ¥10.94B ($74.7m) market cap logistics company in Japan that owns and operates warehouses and distribution facilities mostly in and around Tokyo.

Sapporo Clinical Laboratory Inc (TYO 9776) - A Cheap Yet Consistently Profitable Japanese Nano Cap at 0.3x P/TBV: This is a quick profile of one of the many Japanese stocks that have caught my interest and are in my cheap Japanese basket. I’ll be doing more frequent short write ups on names in this basket over the coming months. Sapporo Clinical Laboratory is a $24m market cap operator of retail pharmacies and clinical testing facilities across Hokkaido, Japan. They’ve been compounding tangible

Full Cheap Japanese Portfolio Positions / Sizing Update: Taking advantage of Tokyo Stock Exchange's push to close the price to book discount of listed securities

Super Cheap Japanese Stocks - 43 Names I Own as a Basket (0.5x P/TBV, 2.1x EV/EBITDA): Taking advantage of Tokyo Stock Exchange's push to close the price to book discount of listed securities

Imagineer - A Deep Value, Profitable, and 3.4% Yielding Net-Net Japanese Game Developer With 17+ Years of Dividend History: Imagineer is a $77m market cap video game developer based in Japan and trades under the ticker TYO: 4644. They have a long history of profitability, are a net-net, and have a TTM P/E of 10.15. They also have a dividend yield of 3.4% with a history of growing their dividend steadily for 17+ years.