Nomura and Invesco match fees already charged for Japan and emerging markets

Nomura and Invesco listed active stock funds this week that charge the same fees incumbents already charge. Neither has a performance record, and in each market an index fund already charges 0.09%.

The Nomura Japan Equity ETF NJPN began trading on NYSE Arca on Thursday, Nov. 12. A prospectus dated Nov. 4 sets the fee at 0.49%, all of it a management fee, with no waiver.

That is what the iShares MSCI Japan ETF EWJ charges in its current prospectus to track the MSCI Japan Index. EWJ held $23.3 billion as of Nov. 12.

On Wednesday, Nov. 11, Invesco listed the Invesco Emerging Markets Enhanced ETF IQEE on the same exchange. A prospectus dated Nov. 4 sets its fee at 0.33%, matching the JPMorgan ActiveBuilders Emerging Markets Equity ETF JEMA.

Nomura's Japan fund

Nomura's manager is Delaware Management Company, a series of Nomura Investment Management Business Trust. Nomura Asset Management in Tokyo, an affiliate, builds the portfolio as subadviser, typically from the largest companies in the Tokyo Stock Price Index.

Index funds already charge less to track Japanese stocks. FLJP tracks the FTSE Japan Capped Index of large and midsize companies, charges 0.09% as of Aug. 1, and held $4.09 billion as of Nov. 9. BBJP tracks the Morningstar Japan Target Market Exposure Index and charges 0.19% on a fact sheet dated Sept. 30, which reported $19.66 billion.

The other active Japan fund reaches a similar net fee only through a waiver. A prospectus dated Dec. 18, 2025 shows NBJP at 0.50% after waivers, against a 1.92% gross total. It held $115.2 million as of Nov. 5.

That prospectus caps operating expenses at 0.49% through Aug. 31, 2027. The cap excludes brokerage, interest and extraordinary expenses, among other items, so the net ratio can sit above 0.49%. When that cap ends, the ceiling becomes 0.69% from Sept. 1, 2027 through Aug. 31, 2029, not 1.92%.

NJPN has no waiver. A buyer pays the same 0.49% EWJ charges to track Japanese stocks, for an active portfolio with no record.

Invesco's emerging-markets fund

JEMA charges the same 0.33% on a fact sheet dated Sept. 30, when it reported $1.75 billion. It launched on March 10, 2021, and JPMorgan says it allocates across countries, styles and company sizes. IQEE seeks to beat the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

IEMG charges 0.09% in a prospectus dated Dec. 30, 2025, and held $146.6 billion as of Nov. 12. It tracks the MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index, which includes small companies the MSCI Emerging Markets Index leaves out.

What the 0.33% buys is an active portfolio built to approximate the MSCI Emerging Markets Index's country and industry mix. Invesco's prospectus expected, at launch, more than 25% of net assets in Taiwan, and more than 25%, taken together, in Asia-Pacific countries other than Taiwan. Semiconductors and semiconductor equipment were about 26.6% of the index on Sept. 30, above the 20% level that lets the fund put up to 35% of its assets in one industry.