Warren Buffett doubles down on his investments in Japan

Warren Buffett continues to see long-term opportunity in Japan. On Monday, the legendary investor increased his stake in five of the country’s trading firms.

Here are the five Buffett-backed Japanese firms

National Indemnity Company – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway now owns over 8.5% on average of Mitsui & Co Ltd (TYO: 8031), Marubeni, Sumitomo, Itochu, and Mitsubishi Corp (TYO: 8058).

Aggregate value of the five investments now beats any other Berkshire-held stock outside of the U.S. On CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia”, Hugh Shelby-Smith of Talaria Asset Management noted:

Japan has one of the best macroeconomic stories around. That’s not why we invest but clearly, we’re seeing funds flow into Japan at a rate that we haven’t seen over the past fifteen years.

Still, Nikkei 225 is trading slightly down on Monday.

Warren Buffett’s plans for his Japanese investments

The Oracle of Omaha plans on keeping his exposure to Japan for the long term but has already pledged to not push his stake in any of these companies above 9.9%.

His multinational conglomerate holding company does not have investments beyond the said five in Japan. Talaria’s Shelby-Smith also said today:

We’re seeing positive YoY growth dynamics [in Japan]. You’ve got a sweet spot in terms of inflation. And there’s a lot of assets [in Japan] that are priced as if deflation will be in existence in perpetuity.

The five companies that Warren Buffett said in April he will add to as Invezz reported here have a diversified portfolio with value and cash flow as a priority.