Is WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Fund (OPPJ) a Strong ETF Right Now?

The WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Fund (OPPJ) made its debut on 06/28/2013, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Asia-Pacific (Developed) ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.

A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns.

But, there are some investors who would rather invest in smart beta funds; these funds track non-cap weighted strategies, and are a strong option for those who prefer choosing great stocks in order to beat the market.

By attempting to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, non-cap weighted indexes are based on certain fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such.

While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by Wisdomtree. OPPJ has been able to amass assets over $202.51 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Asia-Pacific (Developed) ETFs. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the WISDOMTREE JAPAN OPPORTUNITIES INDEX before fees and expenses.

The WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Index tracks the performance of Japanese companies.

Cost & Other Expenses

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor. And, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.58%.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.43%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk, but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

When you look at individual holdings, Japanese Yen (jpy)accounts for about 100% of the fund's total assets, followed by Marubeni Corp and Sumitomo Corp.

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 154.27% of OPPJ's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Fund has gained about 24.16% so far, and it's up approximately 0% over the last 12 months (as of 02/13/2026). OPPJ has traded between $35.34 $57.61 in this past 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 0.22 and standard deviation of 0.00% for the trailing three-year period. With about 122 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .

Alternatives

WisdomTree Japan Opportunities Fund 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 $16.2 billion in assets, iShares MSCI Japan ETF has $18.52 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

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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