How to Follow Japanese Small-Cap Stocks When the Company Doesn't Publish in English

Japan's smaller listed companies are an attractive hunting ground for some foreign investors, but they are also the hardest to follow. Many publish earnings and other announcements only in Japanese, and few are covered by analysts writing in English.

Two facts frame the problem. Since April 2025, domestic companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Prime Market have been required to publish their financial results and timely disclosures in Japanese and English at the same time, although an excerpt or summary in English is acceptable. Companies on the other market segments are not covered by that requirement. And media reports citing figures from the exchange and others have described the gap among smaller companies: for example, that as of December 2024 only around 37% of companies with a market capitalization below ¥25 billion published announcements in English, and that a large share of Japanese stocks has little or no sell-side research. These figures come from secondary reports, so treat them as indicative.

• The Company Announcements Service. The Japan Exchange Group lists English information provided by companies after it is disclosed on TDnet. English can appear later than the Japanese original, and public disclosures stay on the site for a limited period of 31 days.
• A list of companies that disclose in English. The exchange publishes the availability of English disclosure by listed company, which is the quickest way to find out whether a company you are looking at provides any.
• The company's own IR site. Many companies post English presentations or summaries there even when they are not required to.
• [EDINET](/en/column/edinet). Statutory filings, mostly in Japanese.
• Paid data and research. Useful for coverage, but often thin for the smallest companies.

1. Check whether English exists. Look up the company on the exchange's English disclosure availability list and on its IR site before you spend effort translating.
2. Identify the filing from its title. TDnet titles follow patterns; the glossary in What Is TDnet? lists the common ones. A "notice regarding revision of earnings forecast" or a buyback resolution usually deserves attention first.
3. Read the numbers on page one. The first page of a kessan tanshin is a standard table. Net sales, operating profit, ordinary profit, EPS and the full-year forecast sit in the same places for every company, so you can read most of it without Japanese.
4. Translate the explanations, then verify. Machine translation is good enough for management's commentary and the reasons for a change. Always check the figures against the original, because a mistranslated number or a missing negative sign can be costly.
5. Watch ownership filings. Large shareholding reports and tender offers on EDINET reveal who is accumulating or bidding, and they can be the most valuable signal for a company nobody else covers.
6. Set up alerts so that you see new filings for your stocks without checking every day.

• Units. Amounts are usually in millions of yen, sometimes thousands. Check before you compare.
• Fiscal years. Many companies end the year in March, but not all. A "first quarter" may be April to June.
• Cumulative quarters. Quarterly figures are normally cumulative from the start of the fiscal year, not stand-alone quarters.
• Ticker codes. Codes are four characters. Newer codes can include a letter, such as 285A, and company names are often romanized in several ways, so search by code.
• Accounting standards. Most companies use Japanese GAAP, some use IFRS, and ordinary profit exists only in Japanese-style statements.
• Time zone. Filings are timed in Japan Standard Time and are often released after the close, so the first price reaction may come at the next open.

KabuNew reads the original Japanese filings on TDnet and EDINET, and for the stocks you follow it sends a three-line English summary with a High / Medium / Low rating of the likely impact on the share price, typically within minutes. You can add stocks by ticker code or by company name in English, and the Free plan covers up to five stocks. Alerts arrive by email, and on the Standard plan also by Slack, Discord and Google Chat.

AI summaries can contain errors, so check the original filing before you act on anything. KabuNew is an information service and not investment advice.