Best Japanese Stocks — July 2026
Japan is the market where cheap and improving overlap most often. The TSE's governance push has forced sub-book companies to fix capital allocation or explain themselves: buybacks at record levels, cross-shareholdings unwinding, and a long tail of profitable small caps still priced for the deflation era. MoatMap scores 2,500+ TSE names; the list below is where the factors line up.
MoatMap scored 2,625 Japanese stocks on 2026-07-18; 1,469 cleared the $250M market-cap floor this list applies. The market's average StockRank is 66. Industrials is the most represented sector in the top 10 (4 names).
July 2026 edition · data as of ·How we score stocks·All Japan stocks, refreshed daily
Top 25 Japanese Stocks by StockRank
| # | Ticker | Company | Score | Q | V | M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8935.T | FJ Next Holdings Co., Ltd. | 100 | 85 | 80 | 78 |
| 2 | 8066.T | Mitani Corporation | 100 | 73 | 79 | 82 |
| 3 | 4365.T | Matsumoto Yushi-Seiyaku Co.,Ltd. | 100 | 74 | 83 | 72 |
| 4 | 2393.T | Nippon Care Supply Co., Ltd. | 99 | 79 | 56 | 88 |
| 5 | 1879.T | Shinnihon Corporation | 99 | 76 | 85 | 61 |
| 6 | 6823.T | Rion Co., Ltd. | 99 | 80 | 76 | 62 |
| 7 | 1827.T | Nakano Corporation | 99 | 64 | 88 | 68 |
| 8 | 8005.T | Scroll Corporation | 99 | 73 | 58 | 86 |
| 9 | 6824.T | New Cosmos Electric Co.,Ltd. | 99 | 70 | 78 | 69 |
| 10 | 8844.T | Cosmos Initia Co., Ltd. | 99 | 68 | 77 | 73 |
| 11 | 9639.T | Sankyo Frontier Co.,Ltd. | 99 | 80 | 71 | 65 |
| 12 | 9790.T | Fukui Computer Holdings,Inc. | 99 | 85 | 75 | 53 |
| 13 | 8081.T | Kanaden Corporation | 99 | 70 | 79 | 65 |
| 14 | 4095.T | Nihon Parkerizing Co., Ltd. | 98 | 73 | 71 | 69 |
| 15 | 4008.T | Sumitomo Seika Chemicals Company, Limited. | 98 | 69 | 74 | 69 |
| 16 | 9934.T | Inaba Denki Sangyo Co.,Ltd. | 98 | 76 | 67 | 69 |
| 17 | 9274.T | Kpp Group Holdings Co., Ltd. | 98 | 59 | 80 | 72 |
| 18 | 3817.T | SRA Holdings, Inc. | 98 | 80 | 86 | 44 |
| 19 | 1979.T | Taikisha Ltd. | 98 | 74 | 65 | 71 |
| 20 | 9247.T | TRE Holdings Corporation | 98 | 67 | 79 | 63 |
| 21 | 8157.T | Tsuzuki Denki Co., Ltd. | 98 | 66 | 76 | 68 |
| 22 | 1939.T | Yondenko Corporation | 98 | 64 | 67 | 79 |
| 23 | 4481.T | Base Co., Ltd. | 98 | 91 | 72 | 46 |
| 24 | 9889.T | JBCC Holdings Inc. | 98 | 82 | 72 | 55 |
| 25 | 3151.T | Vital KSK Holdings, Inc. | 98 | 47 | 79 | 83 |
Ranked by StockRank (Quality + Value + Momentum composite) at a minimum market cap of $250M. A new edition is generated on the first scoring run of each month.
Active share buybacks in the 180 days to : 4008.T, 9934.T, 3151.T
Why Japan Rewards a Systematic Screen
The old story of Japan as a value trap where cheap stays cheap broke around 2023, when the Tokyo Stock Exchange began requiring companies trading below book value to publish capital-efficiency improvement plans. The result is structural: record share buybacks, rising payout ratios, and management teams that respond to shareholders because the exchange itself demands it. Cheapness in Japan now comes with a catalyst attached.
The market's inefficiency is concentrated in its breadth. Japan lists thousands of profitable companies with little or no analyst coverage: a long tail of niche manufacturers, regional franchises and B2B specialists where a systematic screen has a genuine information edge. Many of the highest StockRank scores in the whole MoatMap universe consistently come from this tail.
Two practical notes for foreign investors: yen weakness flatters exporters' earnings and can mask underlying business quality (the Quality score helps separate the two), and Japanese disclosure follows its own rhythm. The FIEA 5%-rule large-shareholding reports MoatMap tracks lag trades by up to five business days, so insider signals arrive slower than in the US.
Related reading: Best Japanese Stocks 2026: the full TSE thesis →
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the best Japanese stocks to buy right now?
- The table above ranks MoatMap's top 25 TSE-listed stocks by StockRank, a composite of Quality, Value and Momentum percentiles. It refreshes monthly with a stated data date, and each ticker links to a full score breakdown with the company's fundamentals and filing history.
- Is Japan still cheap in 2026?
- Relative to the US, substantially: on price-to-book and earnings yield the TSE trades at a wide discount, even after the post-2023 re-rating. What changed is the direction. Governance reform means the discount now narrows through buybacks and payout increases rather than persisting indefinitely, and that combination of cheap plus improving is what the Value and Momentum scores capture together.
- How do I buy Japanese stocks from abroad?
- Most international brokers offer direct TSE access (tickers like 7203.T), and the largest names also trade as US ADRs. Direct listings give you the full universe; the interesting long tail of small caps rarely has an ADR. Currency exposure to the yen is part of the position either way.
- What about the yen when buying Japanese stocks?
- A weak yen boosts exporters' reported earnings but reduces the value of your holding in home-currency terms; a strengthening yen does the reverse. Domestically-focused businesses (retail, services, regional banks) are the cleaner play on Japan itself. The sector column above helps separate the two groups.
- How often does this Japan ranking refresh?
- A new edition forms on the first scoring run of each calendar month and the page states its data-as-of date. For a daily view, use the ranked-stocks screener filtered to Japan.