The WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Fund (OPPJ) made its debut on 06/28/2013, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Asia-Pacific (Developed) ETFs category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
Market cap weighted indexes were created to reflect the market, or a specific segment of the market, and the ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on this strategy.
Market cap weighted indexes work great for investors who believe in market efficiency. They provide a low-cost, convenient and transparent way of replicating market returns.
If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.
This kind of index follows this same mindset, as it attempts to pick stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance; non-cap weighted strategies base selection on certain fundamental characteristics, or a mix of such characteristics.
While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Wisdomtree. OPPJ has been able to amass assets over $287.39 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Asia-Pacific (Developed) ETFs. OPPJ, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the WISDOMTREE JAPAN OPPORTUNITIES INDEX .
The WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Index tracks the performance of Japanese companies.
Cost & Other Expenses
When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor. And, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins in the long term if all other factors remain equal.
Annual operating expenses for OPPJ are 0.58%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.10%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
Taking into account individual holdings, Japanese Yen (jpy)accounts for about 100% of the fund's total assets, followed by Sumitomo Corp and Mitsubishi Corp.
Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 148.4% of OPPJ's total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
Year-to-date, the WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Fund has added about 27.21% so far, and is up roughly 45.55% over the last 12 months (as of 09/03/2026). OPPJ has traded between $40.97 $61.09 in this past 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 0.26 and standard deviation of 20.49% for the trailing three-year period. With about 92 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Fund is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Asia-Pacific (Developed) ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
JPMorgan BetaBuilders Japan ETF (BBJP) tracks MORNINGSTAR JAPAN TRGT MRKT EXPOSURE ID and the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ) tracks MSCI Japan Index. JPMorgan BetaBuilders Japan ETF has $19.19 billion in assets, iShares MSCI Japan ETF has $22.72 billion. BBJP has an expense ratio of 0.19% and EWJ changes 0.49%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Asia-Pacific (Developed) ETFs
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
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WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Fund (OPPJ): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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