Useful tools for Researching Japan

Updated. Bring on 2025!

Little did I know but

Edwin Dorsey

has been creating a fantastic list of resources for hedge fund research. (I highly recommend you check it out.) Coincidentally and not to the extent that he has, I’ve actually been updating my own, specifically for researching Japan. For those who have been following this publication for a while, you may know that there is a ‘Useful Resources’ Page where I’ve curated a list of sources to aid your idea generation and stock research in Japan. These are resources I use myself to analyze and have found helpful. Over time I come across new useful tools so this is a continuously evolving list and I’m going for quantity here. Some are more useful than others and more frequently used. It can be anything from places to find new ideas, to finding industry-specific data to dare I say… Macro stuff. While some of them are in Japanese, auto-translation should do the trick. I do apologize if you experience difficulty getting some of them translated. A decent number of them do have a dedicated English page. I hope this can help you deepen your understanding of Japanese Business and Culture!

I’m also leaving it below for your convenience. If you ever need to see it again, it’ll be available for everyone on the “Useful Resources” tab whenever you need it!

Happy hunting and Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones. May 2025 bring what you’re looking for! not just in stocks of course ;)

- MIJ

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Analyst reports in English

• Fisco

• Shared Research

• IR Street

• Stock Research Center (Unfortunately this is in Japanese but a PDF translator should do the trick.)

• Musha Research: Provides some really interesting perspectives on Macro

• Strategy Advisors

• Bridge-Salon: Sponsored Research in Japanese

Substacks

• Asia Century Stocks: Covers Asia in General including Japan

• Altay Capital: Coverage on Japan especially Net-Nets

• Continuous Compounding: Covers global but a good portion on Japan

• Dungeon Investing: Coverage of IP/Gaming related names

• East Asia Stocks: Covers East Asia, including Japan

• Japan Business Insights: Covers Japan from a Unique angle

• Japan Economy Watch: Commentary on Japan Economy & Politics

• Jesper Koll: Great Stats + Commentary on Japan Markets

• Observing Japan: Political Commentary on Japan

• Seraya Investment: Asia Focused Fund which includes Japan

• Sweet Stocks: Occasional reports on Interesting Japanese stocks

• Venture in Japan: On the Japanese venture ecosystem

Stock Data/Info

• Edinet: Japanese ‘EDGAR’, look up filings of companies directly.

• Logmi Finance: Provides earnings call transcripts in Japanese. Does not cover all stocks

• Buffet Code: Great place to get a snapshot of companies. Has many functions useful for analysis

• Minkabu: Another site for snapshots, good for retail sentiment checks as it provides consensus price targets by brokers and retail investors

• IR Bank: Versatile in getting an overview of companies, holdings summaries, and earnings releases (including guidance revisions)

• Karauri.net: Data on Short Interest

• Yasashii IPO: Latest on upcoming IPOs

• Ufo Catch: Real-time update on the latest releases by Public companies

• Kabutan Daily Movers/After Hours: Useful to track daily movers and After-hours information. Kabutan itself has way more functions that may be useful to you

• Kabumap: Stock market data, with interesting screeners and rankings

• Kabupro: Easy access to all historic filings. (My favorite way to use it is to see historic ownership filings by specific Funds/Investors)

• Traders Web Margin Data: Margin Buying/Selling Data on the overall market, also provides a screener (You can also use IR bank to get a breakdown of more company-specific data and trends for each)

• Yahoo Finance Bulletin: Company-specific bulletin used by individual investors (Beware there is a lot of noise and nonsense here but in rare cases some interesting info)

• Japan Cheap Growth Stocks Community: A great community on X for idea generation of Japanese stocks

• Shikiho Online: The online version of the “Japan Company Handbook” with a paid sub that Tatsuro Kiyohara recommends

• Japan Exchange Group: Owner of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, get updated market data and new governance proposals

• Media IR: High-level stock analysis (in Japanese but should be translatable)

Management/IR Interviews

Unfortunately many in video format are in Japanese. Some do have transcripts

• Shonan Toushi Benkyokai: Transcripts for IR Seminars. (video format here)

• Keieisha Times: Management Interviews. (Text)

• Leaders File: Management Interviews. (Text)

• Jonetsu CEO: Profiles of Japanese Executives for both Public and Private Companies

• Kabuberry: IR Interview transcript. (video format here)

• IRTV Japan: IR Interviews. (video format)

• Shacho Meikan: Mix of Video and Text-based Interviews with Japanese CEOs

• The WorldFolio Japan: Interesting management interviews for both private/public companies

• Disrupting Japan: a wonderful podcast featuring the Japanese startup/Tech world

• Minsetsu: Platform to organize management calls. *Please note this service is only available to funds

Other Stats

• IR Japan: Provides great stats on the activism, and governance landscape on their earnings presentations

• One Capital Cloud Index: “Bessemer Cloud Index” of Japan, a good barometer of the SaaS Landscape

• Small and Medium Enterprise Agency: METI Data on Small and Medium Businesses

• METI Economic Stats: Japan Economy Statistics

• Tokyo Stock Exchange: General Japan Stock Market Stats updated daily

• Official Statistics of Japan: Miscellaneous Stats on Japan

• Open Work: Employee Reviews (Similar to Glassdoor)

• en-Lighthouse: Employee Reviews

• ITReview: Customer insights for software products

• Kanpo: Database for financials on private companies

• Tochidai: Database of land value in Japan

• Financial Services Agency: Updates on the regulatory + Governance landscape

• Peragaru: Platform for Alternative Data Specifically for Japan (Paid, in Japanese)

• Ministry of Finance: Government reported Macro stats (I like to look at foreign fund in/outflows in securities)

• Teikoku Data Bank: Economic Trends and Bankruptcy Stats. Interesting place to see what’s driving bankruptcies

• Tokyo Shoko Research: Bankruptcy data

• Recruit Survey and Data: Miscellaneous Data (This is a little harder to translate as they’re PDFs)

• Seikatsu Soken: Consumer Surveys and Behavioral Data

• NLI Research Institute: Reports from an economic thinktank covering finance, asset management, insurance and pensions

• Daiwa Institute of Research: Good overview and reports on Key Macro Indicators

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