OPPJ vs SCJ

OPPJBWisdomTree Japan Opportunities Fund

SCJAiShares MSCI Japan Small-Cap ETF

In short

OPPJ Most Japan funds just hand you the index. OPPJ builds around the reform story: Berkshire's trading-house stakes, buyback-heavy payers, cheap governance improvers, and a yen hedge that resets between 0% and 100% every month.

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

OPPJ The Fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Index before fees and expenses. It uses passive indexing and generally representative sampling, investing at least 80% of assets in Index constituents or economically similar investments.

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

Why people hold it

• OPPJ The Buffett tell, written into the rulebook: up to 45% of the index can sit in Japanese companies where Berkshire Hathaway owns more than 5% of the shares.sec.govwisdomtree.com
• The yen hedge is a dial, not a switch. Each month the index sets its hedge anywhere from 0% to 100% using signals like yen momentum and US versus Japan interest rate differentials.wisdomtree.comsec.gov
• Three more sleeves take 15-33% each: high shareholder yield (dividends plus buybacks), cheap governance improvers with growing earnings, and geopolitical or tech themes.sec.gov
• Active-sounding story, passive plumbing: a published rules-based index, at least 80% of assets in its constituents, and close tracking of the index it names. Pays quarterly.

• 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

• OPPJ You pay for the design. The 0.58% fee runs above the typical Japan fund and well above plain trackers like FLJP at 0.09% and BBJP at 0.19%.
• Concentrated by construction: the Berkshire sleeve alone can reach 45% of the index and the fund is non-diversified, so a few trading houses can steer results.sec.gov
• New engine in an old chassis. This was the WisdomTree Japan Hedged SmallCap Equity Fund (DXJS) until July 2025, so returns before that date reflect a different small-cap strategy.wisdomtree.comsec.gov

• 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 OPPJ profile⁠

Full SCJ profile⁠