Daye Deng, Co-Founder and Editor of the Value Punks newsletter on Substack, joins the podcast to discuss his articles that are deep dives on Japanese Trading Companies and why Warren Buffett invested in Japan.

Value Punks article on Japanese Trading Companies: https://valuepunks.substack.com/p/deep-dive-japanese-trading-companies

Chapters:

[0:00] Introduction + Episode sponsor: Alphasense

[1:26] History of the Japanese trading companies and Warren Buffett

[6:59] Why trading so important in Japanese economy

[12:37] Why Buffett made his first investment in Japan

[22:23] Breaking down of Sogo Shosha (Japanese Trading Companies)

[26:38] Why Buffett holding his investment despite run-up

[28:21] Examples of corporate governance and capital allocation changes that Japanese trading companies specifically made to improve them

[37:54] Overview of the basket of 7 Japanese Trading Companies, and what Daye thinks is the most interesting/exciting; difference between tier one, tier two and tier three players, and how would Daye label the 5 companies Buffett invested in (Tier 1-3)

[43:16] Geopolitical reasons folks interested in Japan

[47:13] ESG in Japan

Today's episode is sponsored by: Alphasense

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