JJapan Finance

I am trying to help a Japanese friend who has about 4,000,000 yen and wants to invest, but is clueless, what is the Japanese equivalent of a Roth IRA and VOO ETF?

  • October 8, 2025

Thank you

by Maleficent_Pool_4456

8 comments

  1. NISA + eMAXIS Slim

    EDIT: might want to consider a portion in a Nikkei 225. It’s been doing quite well the past 13 years (look at chart). My wife does 75% S&P, 25% Nikkei.

  3. You can just invest in VOO from here..

    Rakuten is generally an easy one to set up and use and allows you to trade US ETFs.

    Unless you’re an American in which case there might be special conditions involved, not sure about that

  4. Just remember for Japan specifically, mutual funds (for non-US taxpayers) are generally better than ETFs because they reinvest dividends internally and don’t count towards the contribution cap.

    But as others have said: NISA, iDeCo. Emaxis slim all country.

  5. I’ve found that trying to “help” someone else invest, usually doesn’t end well. I generally just point them in a general direction, let them know what I choose to do and why, and leave it up to them to make their own decisions.

    Everyone’s risk tolerance is different, and everyone handles gains and losses differently.

  6. (edit: typos)

    1) iDeco, if their company doesn’t support 確定拠出年金 (Japan 401k)

    2) NISA, DCA into the below:
    成長枠: US ETFs (100% VOO or VTI/VXUS split)
    積立枠: Japan ETF (eMaxis Slim all country)
    *For distribution, follow bogle or relevant strategy. Worth noting that US bond ETFs (like BND) are not eligible for NISA.
    *Investing in US ETFs can cause FX complications, if they don’t want to deal with that go all Japan ETFs

    Any additional money and/or inclusion of bond ETFs they want to invest beyond NISA limit can be DCA-ed into 特定口座.

    For lump sum or not, NISA has annual limits and lifetime limits. If young then DCA now in smaller weekly/monthly increments, if older then large amounts may make more sense. We are in a bull market, it is hard to predict what will happen. But as long as the investment horizon is long, there should not be an issue. See this for reference [Unluckiest investor](https://www.wealthmorning.com/2023/09/15/648774/meet-bob-the-unluckiest-investor-ever/amp/).

    For brokerage there are a couple of options, top ones are SBI and Rakuten, tons of Japanese websites already comparing different ones.

  7. Go for Rakuten Securities

    Buy VOO and Emaxis UITFs using Rakuten credit card and get points too.

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