https://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/15312895
“In 1986, he raised ¥65 million after selling his parlors, and started investing full-time in financial markets…Fujimoto says trading in his late 80s helps him enjoy life and “prevents me from getting senile.” But he’s not without regrets, saying he is “full of dissatisfaction” with his ¥2 billion pot of wealth.”
Adjusting for inflation, in USD terms he started with nearly $600K and ended with $14 million USD today, over a 38 year period.
His returns are barely above that of buy and hold SP500 over that timeline.
However, he absolutely is crushing the Japanese Nikkei returns. But he would have had a simpler time investing in the US markets.
Japan’s “Warren Buffett” could only barely beat SP500’s return over 38 years
byu/ryeander ininvesting
Posted by ryeander
7 Comments
Probably should’ve invested in the actual Warren Buffet instead
Wow, that’s surprising!
Interesting, but patience pays off! Warren Buffet’s strategy has its merits.
Most countries used to have capital controls where you can’t dump all your money in USD and SPY. Nor was it easy to with the brokers that existed all the way up until like, 2010 with Ibkr. I’d say this guy did remarkably well compared to the Nikkei.
Americas Warren Buffett is basically dead even with the S&P for 20 years now, so I mean there’s that.
Is it fair to compare a Japanese investment to US market?
This guy was able to survive Japan’s asset bubble (1986-1991) and the subsequent balance sheet recession (1990-2005) with limited tools and still managed to hang in there and outperform most active managers on the planet who didn’t have to deal with such strong headwinds.