FLJP vs GSJY

FLJPAFranklin FTSE Japan ETF

GSJYBGoldman Sachs ActiveBeta Japan Equity ETF

In short

FLJP Japan's whole market for nine basis points. FLJP tracks the FTSE Japan RIC Capped Index across roughly 500 stocks at 0.09%, a fraction of what the typical Japan fund charges.

GSJY Most Japan ETFs just buy the market. GSJY runs Goldman's ActiveBeta screen instead, tilting a basket of roughly 220 Japanese stocks toward value, momentum, quality and low volatility for a quarter-percent fee.

Stated mandate

FLJP The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the FTSE Japan RIC Capped Index.

GSJY The fund seeks investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta Japan Equity Index.

Why people hold it

• FLJP 0.09% a year, against a Japan-cohort median near 0.50%. Same country, same broad exposure, a fraction of the toll.
• Roughly 500 names via the FTSE Japan RIC Capped Index, whose capping rules trim outsized positions so no single stock runs away with the portfolio.
• Running since 2017 and now a multi-billion-dollar, actively traded fund, it tracks its index tightly and ranks among the strongest builds in its Japan peer group.
• Cheaper than the bigger brand-name Japan trackers it competes with, including EWJ at 0.49% and BBJP at 0.19%.

• GSJY Four factor tilts (value, momentum, quality, low volatility) in one ticker, in a corner of the market where nearly everything else is plain cap-weighted Japan.
• 0.25% a year, half the typical fee in the Japan group. Multi-factor strategies usually cost more than the index funds they sit beside, not less.
• It hugs the Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta Japan Equity Index it names, with holdings that match the stated mandate. For a rules-based fund, that is the entire job.
• Live since 2016, so the recipe has run through real Japanese market weather rather than a backtest, and it stands in the upper half of its Japan peer group.

Worth knowing

• FLJP The yen rides along. Currency moves hit returns here; Franklin's hedged twin, FLJH, strips that out for the same 0.09%.
• One country, one market cycle. Everything inside depends on Japan, so this is a slice of a portfolio rather than a diversified core.
• Distributions land annually or semiannually, not monthly, so cash flow arrives in lumps.

• GSJY Straight Japan exposure comes cheaper elsewhere: FLJP at 0.09% and BBJP at 0.19%. The gap is what the factor tilts cost you.
• A smaller, lightly traded fund next to the category's giants, so the spread can matter as much as the expense ratio on the way in and out.
• Those tilts cut both ways: the fund can look meaningfully different from a standard Japan index. Cash comes back once or twice a year, not quarterly.

Full FLJP profile⁠

Full GSJY profile⁠