Japan All Cap

Backing businesses, not the economy

By focusing on the fundamentals, we aim to uncover Japan’s mispriced and often underappreciated opportunities.

0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 90%

00:00

Japanese Equities: our philosophy

Investment manager Donald Farquharson introduces Japanese Equities, reflecting on the exciting opportunities ahead.

Aiming for outperformance

Japan All Cap is long-term focused. We aim to outperform the TOPIX Index by 2 per cent per annum over rolling five-year periods.

Our portfolio contains 45-65 holdings. We seek to take advantage of market inefficiencies by investing across different types of growth company which, given our time horizon, allows us the opportunity to take advantage of their idiosyncratic growth opportunities.

We find these companies through bottom-up research, holding on for the long term and aiming to capture the benefits of compounded growth.

The performance target is aspirational and is not guaranteed. We don’t use it to compile the portfolio and returns will vary. A single performance target may not be appropriate across all vehicles and jurisdictions. We may not meet our investment objectives if, for example, our growth investment style is out of favour or we misjudge the long-term earnings growth of our holdings.

Being patient with potential

We aim to capture growth in all its forms – from secular opportunities in emerging digital disruptors to the enduring growth of stalwart franchises to special situations of corporate reform.

The patience with which we pursue this broad base of potential is a product of our pedigree. Having launched specialist mandates in the 1980s, we’re one of the few who’ve been doing this for over 40 years.

Our experience of Japan’s rich history offers us an insight into the significant structural changes at play here.

A classic analogy for competitive advantage is moats: we’re not interested in how deep the moat will be in the immediate future but in how deep it will be in five years’ time and beyond.

Matthew Brett

Meet the manager

Matthew Brett

Matthew is an investment manager in the Japanese Equities Team. He is co-manager of the Japan All Cap Strategy, the Japanese Income Growth Strategy and manager of the Baillie Gifford Japan Trust. He joined Baillie Gifford in 2003 and became a partner of the firm in 2018. Matthew graduated BA (Hons) in Natural Sciences (Psychology) from the University of Cambridge in 2000 and holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Bristol.

Jared Anderson

Jared is an investment manager in the Japanese Equities Team. He is co-manager of the Japanese All Cap Strategy and joined Baillie Gifford in 2016. Prior to joining the team, he worked in the Global Alpha, UK Equities and Fixed Income teams. Before he joined Baillie Gifford he spent two years as an Assistant Economist at the Scottish Government. Jared graduated MA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Edinburgh in 2012.

Documents

Philosophy and process

Explore our investment philosophy and the processes around how the team constructs the portfolio.

View PDF

Stewardship report

Find out about our conversations with portfolio companies, shareholder vote activity and consideration of environmental, social and governance matters.

View PDF

Invest in this strategy

You can invest in this strategy through the following fund(s).

View Japanese Fund

Explore further

Curious to learn more about our products and what we can offer you? Please get in touch.

Start a conversation

Strategy portfolio holdings

A list of the top 10 holdings that the representative portfolio invests in.

All figures up to: 28 February 2025

#	Holding	% of portfolio
1	SoftBank Group	6.8%
2	Sumitomo Mitsui Trust	5.6%
3	Rakuten	5.3%
4	SBI Holdings	4.6%
5	Nintendo	4.1%
6	Sony	4.1%
7	GMO Internet	3.5%
8	CyberAgent	3.2%
9	Recruit Holdings	2.9%
10	Bridgestone	2.7%

Strategy holdings by sector

All figures up to: 28 February 2025

Total: 100%

Please note

The information contained on this page is intended as a guide only and should not be relied upon when making investment decisions. All holdings information is unaudited. Source Baillie Gifford & Co. Please note that totals may not add due to rounding.