Buffett’s Little Japan Handbook, and Other Investing Lessons

Warren Buffett has finally answered a question that has long intrigued investors: What sparked his interest in five Japanese trading houses in 2020, a bet that is now worth more than $25 billion?

The answer was hiding in plain sight: “I was just going through a little handbook that probably had two or three thousand Japanese companies in it,” he told investors at the annual general meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, earlier this month, shortly before announcing his resignation as head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. “There were these five trading companies selling at ridiculously low prices. So I spent about a year acquiring them.”