FJP vs FLJH

FJPCFirst Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund

FLJHAFranklin FTSE Japan Hedged ETF

In short

FJP Most Japan ETFs buy the market by size. FJP scores Japanese stocks on growth and value, then holds roughly 100 of the highest scorers, weighted by rank rather than market cap. A stock-picker's rulebook in an index wrapper.

FLJH Japan stocks with the yen taken out of the equation. FLJH hedges the currency back to dollars for 0.09% a year, the same fee as Franklin's unhedged twin and a fraction of the typical Japan fund.

Stated mandate

FJP The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX® JapanTM Index.

FLJH The Fund seeks to closely track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the FTSE Japan Capped Hedged Index through passive indexing, using replication or representative sampling.

Why people hold it

• FJP The AlphaDEX screen ranks the Nasdaq Japan universe separately on growth and value marks, then keeps about 100 names weighted by rank, so Japan's biggest companies don't automatically get the biggest slots.nasdaqomx.com
• Live since 2011, it is one of the longer-running factor takes on Japanese stocks, and it has grown into a fund holding hundreds of millions of dollars.
• About 100 holdings spread the exposure well beyond a handful of blue chips, and the fund distributes on a quarterly schedule.
• It stays on mandate: a Japan-only equity portfolio built to the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Japan Index, tracking that benchmark closely with no side bets bolted on.

• FLJH 0.09% a year. Currency hedging usually carries a surcharge; here it costs the same as Franklin's unhedged FLJP and far less than the median Japan fund.
• The hedge is the whole point: it aims to strip out yen-dollar moves so what you own is Japanese share prices, not a bet on the currency.
• Broad and deliberately un-top-heavy: roughly 500 Japanese companies tracked through a capped index, so no single name can swell into an outsized slice.
• Live since 2017 and one of the stronger builds in a crowded Japan peer group of index trackers.

Worth knowing

• FJP The screen costs money: 0.80% a year, several times what plain cap-weighted Japan trackers like FLJP and BBJP charge, and at the pricier end of the Japan shelf.
• Thinly traded next to the Japan giants, so spreads and order timing carry more weight here; limit orders exist for exactly this situation.
• One country, one currency, one rulebook. The portfolio can look and behave very differently from Japan's headline cap-weighted indexes in any given stretch.nasdaqomx.com

• FLJH The hedge cuts both ways. When the yen strengthens against the dollar, you give up the tailwind an unhedged Japan fund would capture.
• Thinly traded and small next to the Japan heavyweights, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than headline fee comparisons suggest.
• Distributions land once or twice a year, not monthly or quarterly, so income arrives in lumps.

Full FJP profile⁠

Full FLJH profile⁠