What the trust fee is
The trust fee (信託報酬) is the annual percentage deducted from an ETF to cover fund management and administration costs. It is not billed as a separate invoice — it is deducted from the fund's assets continuously throughout the year.
For example, a TOPIX ETF with a 0.045% trust fee means you pay 45 yen per year on every 100,000 yen you hold. An ETF with a 0.5% fee costs about 500 yen per year on the same amount.
Why small differences compound
The gap between 0.045% and 0.5% looks small in any single year. Over ten years, it starts to matter.
If you invest 1,000,000 yen and both ETFs track the same benchmark returning 5% per year, the lower-fee ETF leaves you with roughly 15,000–20,000 yen more at the end of ten years — just from the fee difference. The gap widens further the longer you hold.
This is the compounding cost effect: a fee that looks small each year quietly reduces the base that grows in every future year.
How to find lower-fee ETFs
On ETF Note, every ETF detail page shows the trust fee as an annual percentage. The lowest-fee ETFs page ranks all Tokyo-listed ETFs by fee from lowest to highest.
Some current examples of low-fee Tokyo ETFs include 449A State Street® SPDR® S&P 500® ETF (JPY Unhedged), 450A State Street® SPDR® S&P 500® ETF (JPY Hedged), 1473 One ETF TOPIX. Check the lowest-fee page for the full ranking.
When the fee is not the only thing to compare
The trust fee is important, but it is not the only number to check. Two ETFs with the same fee can still differ by benchmark, issuer, trading unit, and whether they have market-maker support.
For a broader comparison, browse by theme or company, or read the TOPIX vs Nikkei 225 guide to understand the index differences before comparing fees between categories.