Daily Brief Japan: Yakult Honsha, Softbank Group, Hamee Corp, Toyota Motor, Honeys Holdings Co., Ltd., Nagaileben, Rakus Co Ltd, TSE Tokyo Price Index TOPIX and more

• Yakult Honsha (2267 JP)‘s stock price has continued to slide, and the stock is now trading 53% lower than its highs from 18 months ago. 
• The lower market cap should result in the stock being deleted from a global index in November. The stock has underperformed peers but still trades at higher valuations.
• There has been increased positioning over the last few weeks. Short interest is higher since end-August but there has been covering in the last couple of weeks.

• AI’s evolving every second of every day, and so are the boom’s best investing plays. Early this year, I called out SoftBank Group as a prime AI opportunity.
• A wide discount to NAV offered a cheap way to invest in Arm and tech, but that’s narrowed after Softbank’s 150% share price rally – and more limited NAV growth.
• So I’ve taken a fresh look at SoftBank, reviewed my original trade ideas, and found a new undervalued power play that could help you reap a tidy reward.

• Recently, I had the chance to discuss Hamee Corporation (TSE: 3134) with Evan Bleker of Event Driven Insights.

• Hamee Corporation will soon spin-off its high margin software business.
• The company is 2 weeks away from breaking up into two separate companies which both look attractive.

• Context: Toyota Motor (7203 JP) rallied 3.2% in Wednesday’s morning session. Quantitative models highlight potential for a short-term pull-back.
• Trade Idea: Three actionable option strategies with a bearish tilt are presented, taking advantage of current implied volatility levels and skew.
• Why Read: This Insight combines directional analysis with volatility signals, highlighting a tactical options strategy where high implied volatility and bearish probabilities align, offering investors defined risk/reward.

• Honeys Holdings is leveraging its SPA model to drive growth using a data-driven rapid decision-making process to capture demand in the tough womenswear market.
• It has managed to grow sales for five straight years while also rebuilding supply chains, with some of the highest gross margins in the industry.
• While margins have been hit by higher import costs due to the weak Yen, and higher labour costs, Honeys is squeezing costs further to make up for this.

Key points (machine generated)

• Nagai Reiben reported consolidated sales of 16,983 million yen for the fiscal year ending August 2025, a 3.5% increase from the previous year.
• The company faced declines in operating profit (down 10.5%), ordinary profit (down 9.0%), and net profit (down 8.8%) due to project delays in the fourth quarter.
• Despite challenges, Nagai Reiben maintained a total return ratio of 204.3% for shareholders.

This article is sourced from an online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only.

• Rakus is a high-growth, Japan-focused SaaS provider capitalizing on the digital transformation of the nation’s large and underserved Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) sector. Its strong brand recognition and flagship ‘Raku Raku’ suite of business process automation tools are driving rapid customer acquisition.
• The company has demonstrated an exceptional financial track record, with revenue and net income CAGRs over the past three years of 33.3% and 95.1%, respectively. This growth is coupled with consistently expanding margins, reflecting operational leverage and the scalability of its subscription-based model.
• While the growth outlook is robust, fueled by structural tailwinds such as labor shortages and a government push for digitalization, the company’s valuation is demanding. The premium multiples reflect high expectations, making the stock susceptible to shifts in market sentiment and competitive pressures.

This content is AI-generated and displayed for general informational purposes only. Please verify independently before use.

• BoJ’s policy of small-scale ETF sales appears to have made inflation curb more difficult due to the yen’s depreciation, although it did not trigger a sharp stock market decline.
• The ETFs held by BoJ reduce trading liquidity, thereby increasing stock price volatility and limiting the number of Japanese stocks available for investment by major institutional investors.
• Given that the Bank of Japan’s holdings of ETFs exceed 20% of the issued shares in some companies, the existence of “silent shareholders” is not healthy for corporate governance.