FP Partner (7388) – Money Doctor

FP Partner is an independent insurance agency nationwide offering products from multiple insurance companies. The company handles products from a total of 37 insurance companies and it leads “contact-driven”* insurance broker in Japan. Commission from life insurance accounted for 96% of sales in FYE 11/22. Policy holders have reached 500,000 and policies in force are 1,190,000. …

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A wake-up call from the TSE to Japanese management: Yes, you have a control in lifting your share price.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange (the “TSE”) on 3/31/23 urged companies with low price-to-book (PB) ratios to start focusing on using capital more efficiently and to increase their PB ratios to be higher than 1. Low than 1 PB ratio indicates that investors’ view that a company is worth less than its book value, which is to say, …

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HEROZ Inc. (4382) – One stock with triple investment merits – AI, SaaS API and Online Security (recurring revenues)

HEROZ inc. (“Heroz” or the “company”) offers AI Technologies based services, based on expertise accumulated in making and selling AI Shogi (Japanese chess), Go, backgammon and chess. The company was started in 2009 by current management members formerly of NEC. Core earnings has been subscription fees from “Shogi Wars”, a real time online shogi game …

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RareJob, Inc. (6096) – AI supported English Learning Ecosystem

RareJob (“RJ” or the “company”) provides one-on-one online English speaking lessons. To diversify its growth engines, in 6/20, RJ launched an AI based English speaking exam platform PROGOS. Furthermore, the company is now expanding PROGOS offering from the individuals to companies/universities. Its competitive edge is its vast user data accumulated from the exam/assessment results which …

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Japanese Small Cap Stocks Outperformed in 2022

https://www.nb.com/en/global/insights/japanese-small-caps-may-hop-in-the-year-of-the-rabbit Did you know that Japanese small cap stocks outperformed US and European peers by a wide margin last year? In the linked report by Neuberger Berman, Kei Okamura, Portfolio Manager, pointed out that Japanese small was down just 0.33%, while their U.S. and European peers dropped 7.98% and 18.01%, respectively. Mr. Okamura cites the …

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Kamakura Shinsho, Ltd. (6184) – The business of dying in Japan

Kamakura Shinsho (“kamakura” or the “company”) runs two lines of businesses: end of life services (the main revenue source/98%) and the publication of books related to the end of life (the company’s original business). Kamakura’s core strengths lie in its three portal sites which are the platforms for matching target customers with service providers. These …

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