FLJH vs JPY

FLJHAFranklin FTSE Japan Hedged ETF

JPYCLazard Japanese Equity ETF

In short

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.

JPY Most Japan ETFs just buy the index. JPY hands the stock picking to Lazard's Japan team, which has run the strategy for decades, and holds a concentrated, non-diversified slice of the market instead.

Stated mandate

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.

JPY The Portfolio seeks long-term capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• JPY Active, not index-tracking: a local, bilingual Lazard team chooses the names, a rarity in a category where the biggest funds simply replicate a Japan benchmark.lazardassetmanagement.com
• The prospectus commits at least 80% of net assets to equities traded on Japanese markets, and the portfolio has stayed tightly inside that Japan-only lane.yahoo.com
• Launched in 2025 as one of Lazard's first US active ETFs, putting a long-running institutional Japan strategy into an exchange-traded wrapper.lazard.com

Worth knowing

• 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.

• JPY Costs 0.60% a year, above the typical Japan fund and well above index trackers like FLJP and FLJH at 0.09%. Research is what the premium buys.
• A 2025 launch, modest in size and thinly traded, so spreads can run wider than at the giant Japan trackers and there is little history to judge.
• Non-diversified and concentrated: a handful of names drive results, which can land far from the broad Japan market in either direction.yahoo.com

Full FLJH profile⁠

Full JPY profile⁠