The trust delivered a NAV total return of 17.7% for the year to 31 August 2026, compared with 26.7% for TOPIX in sterling terms. The board noted that performance improved significantly in the second half of the financial year, when NAV total return of 12.7% outperformed the 3.5% return from TOPIX. Over five years, however, NAV total return was 24.4% against 67.1% for TOPIX, while over ten years it was 137.3% against 147.4%.

The board said the share price total return was 20.9%, with the discount to NAV narrowing from 11.4% to 9.1%.

The tender offer would be triggered if the trust’s NAV total return over the three years to 31 August 2029 fails to exceed that of TOPIX. If triggered, it would be carried out at a 2% discount to formula asset value and would need shareholder approval at a general meeting.

Chairman Sam Davis, said the measure reflected the importance the board attached to the recent upturn in performance being “achieved on a more sustained basis”. He added that it could be seen as a vote of confidence in the future, while providing a liquidity event at close to NAV if that confidence proves misplaced.

The trust bought back 12,666,500 shares during the year for £116.9m, equal to 16.3% of its issued share capital at 31 August 2025. The board said this lifted NAV per share for continuing shareholders by 1.7%. A further 1,505,000 shares were repurchased between 1 September and 23 October. A final dividend of 10p per share, unchanged from last year, will be put to shareholders for approval at the AGM on 16 December.

Murata, Sumitomo Metal Mining, SoftBank Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group were the biggest positive contributors to relative performance, each adding about 1 percentage point or more. Rakuten, CyberAgent, SBI Holdings and GA Technologies each detracted from relative performance between 1.7 percentage point and 2.0 percentage point.

The managers bought eight new holdings and sold ten, adding Yaskawa Electric, Harmonic Drive Systems, Tokyo Electron and Shin-Etsu Chemical to gain exposure to AI-related themes in robotics and semiconductors. SoftBank Group remains the largest holding.

Net gearing fell from 12.8% to 8.9%, which the managers said reflected a moderation of their positive view rather than a negative one. Total assets were £872.5m before borrowings of £103.9m. NAV per share rose to 1,185.6p from 1,017.1p.

From its next interim report, the trust will report NAV with borrowings valued at fair value, to align with the basis used in the tender offer test.