This factsheet covers Baillie Gifford's Japan Investment Trust. Manager Matt Brett is optimistic about small and mid-cap Japanese companies with innovative business models and overseas growth, but stresses a 3-5 year horizon. Key holdings: SoftBank Group (6.5% of portfolio) and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust (4.6%). The fund trades at a 9.2% discount to net asset value, meaning its shares are cheaper than its underlying assets, but risks include investing in a single market and small companies.
Baillie Gifford Japan Trust PLC, as of September 30, 2026, pursues a core investment strategy of long-term capital growth by investing in 40–70 small and mid-cap Japanese companies with a holding period of 3–5 years, benchmarked against the TOPIX Total Return. Total assets stand at £878.33 million,
The fund’s NAV returned 17.8% for the month, while the benchmark TOPIX total return was 27.5%, leaving the fund trailing the benchmark by approximately 10 percentage points year-to-date.
| Metric | This Month | Year-to-Date |
|---|---|---|
| Fund (NAV) | 17.8% | 62.0% (3-year) |
| Benchmark (TOPIX) | 27.5% | 65.6% (3-year) |
| Excess Return | -9.7% | -3.6% (3-year) |
The report does not provide monthly attribution data. It only discloses that the top ten holdings account for 35.2% of the portfolio, with SoftBank Group (6.5%) as the largest position and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust (4.6%) as the second largest.
The report does not comment on specific holdings.
[Optimistic] Manager Matt Brett believes Japanese small and mid-cap companies offer growth potential driven by "innovative business models, disruption of traditional Japanese practices, or overseas market opportunities." The report emphasizes investing with a "3-5 year horizon" rather than tracking the benchmark. Key structural positions: Net gearing of 9%, active share of 84%, and annual turnover of only 15%—indicating the manager adopts a low-turnover, high-conviction long-term holding strategy.
The report does not disclose monthly position changes. By sector allocation, Information, Communication & Utilities (17.5%) and Electrical & Electronics (16.2%) are the largest sectors, while Consumer Staples (1.0%) and Real Estate & Construction (1.7%) are the smallest. The net gearing of 9% indicates the fund uses moderate borrowing, but leverage remains low.