The WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity ETF (DXJ) was launched on 06/16/2006, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Asia-Pacific (Developed) ETFs category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
For a long time now, the ETF industry has been flooded with products based on market capitalization weighted indexes, which are designed to represent the broader market or a particular market segment.
Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.
There are some investors, though, who think it's possible to beat the market with great stock selection; this group likely invests in another class of funds known as smart beta, which track non-cap weighted strategies.
These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.
This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Wisdomtree. DXJ has been able to amass assets over $4.86 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Asia-Pacific (Developed) ETFs. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Index before fees and expenses.
The WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Index is designed to provide exposure to Japanese equity markets while at the same time neutralizing exposure to fluctuations of the Japanese Yen movements relative to the U.S. dollar.
Cost & Other Expenses
Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long-term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins, other things remaining the same.
With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.48%.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 3.10%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
Looking at individual holdings, Us Dollar accounts for about 85.3% of total assets, followed by Dreyfus Trsy Oblig Cash Mgmt Cl Ins and Mitsubishi Ufj Financial Group.
DXJ's top 10 holdings account for about 124.17% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
Year-to-date, the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity ETF has added roughly 28.98% so far, and it's up approximately 30.59% over the last 12 months (as of 12/08/2025). DXJ has traded between $95.74 $140.77 in this past 52-week period.
DXJ has a beta of 0.38 and standard deviation of 19.59% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 435 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Asia-Pacific (Developed) ETFs segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.
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 $14.93 billion in assets, iShares MSCI Japan ETF has $15.85 billion. BBJP has an expense ratio of 0.19% and EWJ changes 0.50%.
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 Hedged Equity ETF (DXJ): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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