Berkshire’s Japanese stock positions top $30 billion

( This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis on all things Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can register here to get it every Friday night in your inbox.)

The overall worth of the 5 Japanese “trading homes” in Berkshire Hathaway’s equity portfolio has actually topped $30 billion in current weeks, and Warren Buffett is obviously still purchasing.

Berkshire had actually currently been constructing its positions for twelve months when Buffett at first exposed the stakes of around 5% each on August 30, 2020, his 90th birthday.

At that time, the overall worth of the 5 positions was approximately $6.3 billion.

It’s up 392% to $31.0 billion today, with Berkshire purchasing more for many years and the stocks skyrocketing in between 227% and 551%.

The overall might be even greater due to the fact that some extra purchases might not have actually been revealed yet.

We understand Warren Buffett has actually been contributing to what was currently an enormously effective financial investment, with public recognitions just recently that 2 of the stakes have actually exceeded 10%.

Among the 2, Mitsui, detailed today precisely the number of shares Berkshire owns.

In a press release Thursday, the business passes on word from Berkshire that its National Indemnity subsidiary owned 292,044,900 shares since September 30.

At Friday’s close, they’re valued at around $7.1 billion.

It’s a 10.1% stake, making Country Indemnity its most significant investor.

It’s likewise a boost of 2.3% from the 285,401,400 shares, a 9.7% stake, reported in March.

Today’s press release is a follow-up to one released 2 weeks back by Mitsui in which it stated it had actually been “notified” by Berkshire that “they now hold 10% or more of the ballot rights in Mitsui,” however had actually not been informed the precise variety of shares Berkshire owned.

In late August, Mitsubishi reported it had actually been informed by Berkshire that its holding had actually increased to 10.2% from 9.7% in March.

We have not heard anything given that March about Berkshire’s 3 other Japanese holdings, Itochu, Marubeni, and Sumitomo, however it would not be a surprise to find out those stakes have actually likewise exceeded 10%.

Back in 2020, Buffett guaranteed the business he would not raise Berkshire’s stakes above 10% without consent.

In his yearly letter to investors launched in February, nevertheless, Buffett composed, “As we approached this limitation the 5 business accepted reasonably unwind the ceiling.”

As an outcome, he stated, “ With time, you will likely see Berkshire’s ownership of all 5 boost rather.”

In 2023, Buffett informed CNBC’s Becky Quick he was very first brought in to the stocks in 2020 due to the fact that “they were costing what I believed was an outrageous rate, especially the rate compared to the rate of interest dominating at that time.”

This year, he informed investors Berkshire will keep them for “50 years or permanently.

Some links might need a membership:

Berkshire’s leading holdings of revealed openly traded stocks in the U.S., Japan, and Hong Kong, by market price, based upon today’s closing costs.

Holdings are since June 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on August 14, 2025, other than for:

The complete list of holdings and present market price is readily available from CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

Please send out any concerns or remarks about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, however we do not forward concerns or remarks to Buffett himself.)

If you aren’t currently registered for this newsletter, you can register here.

Likewise, Buffett’s yearly letters to investors are extremely advised reading. There are gathered here on Berkshire’s site.

— Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch