GSJY vs SCJ

GSJYBGoldman Sachs ActiveBeta Japan Equity ETF

SCJAiShares MSCI Japan Small-Cap ETF

In short

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.

SCJ Japan past the household-name exporters. SCJ holds roughly 800 of the country's smaller listed companies, the domestic slice that large-cap Japan benchmarks leave out, and it has been running that mandate since 2007.

Stated mandate

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

SCJ The fund seeks to track an index composed of small-capitalization Japanese equities.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• SCJ One job, done tightly: it tracks the MSCI Japan Small Cap Index, roughly 800 names deep, the part of the market big blue-chip Japan benchmarks leave on the floor.ishares.com
• Trading since 2007, so there is a long live record here, not a backtest, and it has stayed tight to its index over that stretch.
• About 800 holdings means no single stock carries the portfolio, and the 0.50% fee sits right at the median for single-country Japan funds.

Worth knowing

• 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.

• SCJ 0.50% a year is the going rate for the niche, but broad Japan trackers like FLJP (0.09%) and BBJP (0.19%) charge a fraction. Small-cap coverage is the upcharge.
• Moderately traded, and Tokyo is closed while US markets are open, so spreads and price-to-value gaps can widen at the edges of the session.
• Unhedged: the holdings are priced in yen, so currency swings land on top of the stock moves, in both directions. Distributions come once or twice a year.ishares.com

Full GSJY profile⁠

Full SCJ profile⁠