Japan equity memo: Individual investors

Research evidence excerpt

Japan equity memo: Individual investors

Global Markets Research

Japan equity memo: Individual investors 16 June 2026

EQUITY: JAPAN STRATEGY

Marked net purchasing despite bull market, Research Analysts

impact of major IPOs Macro strategy Naoya Fuji - NSC

Headwinds for stocks with high individual investor ownership ratios from major IPOs, June naoya.fuji@nomura.com

Individual Investor Survey shows crowding in terms of popularity of certain stocks +81 3 6703 1245

Tomochika Kitaoka - NSC

Data on trading by investor category shows that individual investors were net tomochika.kitaoka@nomura.com

purchasers in multiple weeks despite bull market +81 3 6703 1815

Individual investors have started to become notable net buyers in weeks when the TOPIX

is rising, including in the second week of May (TOPIX up 0.9%/net purchases of

¥332.8bn) and the fourth week of May (TOPIX up 1.7%/net purchases of ¥164.0bn). They

were also the largest net purchasers, by ¥476.2bn, in the first week of June, when the

TOPIX edged down 0.2% over the week.

Contrarian trend unchanged, but correlation shifting upward

Comparing the correlation between TOPIX performance and net purchases by individual

investors shows an upward shift in the regression line (Figure1). In other words, while

there is still a contrarian tendency for investors to buy on weakness (sell to lock in profits)

when share prices fall (rise), net purchasing is tending to increase regardless of share

price performance. We think larger rises in share prices are becoming necessary for

individual investors to become net sellers.

Profit-taking has sometimes predominated when share prices are rising, but year-

to-date net inflows have totaled ¥1.6trn

Net inflows into publicly offered investment trusts that invest in Japanese equities have