UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM N-Q

 

QUARTERLY SCHEDULE OF PORTFOLIO HOLDINGS OF REGISTERED
MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT COMPANY

 

Investment Company Act file number

811-06142

 

 

THE JAPAN EQUITY FUND, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in charter)

 

c/o Daiwa Securities Trust Company

One Evertrust Plaza

Jersey City, New Jersey

 

07302

(Address of principal executive offices)

 

(Zip code)

 

John J. O’Keefe

The Japan Equity Fund, Inc.

c/o Daiwa Securities Trust Company

One Evertrust Plaza

Jersey City, New Jersey  07302

(Name and address of agent for service)

 

Registrant's telephone number, including area code:

(201) 915-3054

 

 

Date of fiscal year end:

October 31

 

 

 

 

Date of reporting period:

July 31, 2007

 

 



 

Item 1. Schedule of Investments. – The schedule of investments for the three-month period ended July 31, 2007 is filed herewith.

 



 

The Japan Equity Fund, Inc.

 

Portfolio of Investments

July 31, 2007 (unaudited)

 

COMMON STOCKS—99.16%

 

Shares

 

 

 

Value

 

Banks—10.22%

 

 

 

110,000

 

Fukuoka Financial Group, Inc.

 

701,500

 

454

 

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc.

 

4,831,811

 

615

 

Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.

 

4,339,479

 

140,000

 

The Bank of Yokohama, Ltd.

 

976,117

 

258,000

 

The Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., Ltd.

 

2,181,530

 

 

 

 

 

13,030,437

 

Chemicals—6.10%

 

 

 

199,000

 

Asahi Kasei Corp.

 

1,422,501

 

160,000

 

Daicei Chemical Industries Ltd.

 

1,069,974

 

42,000

 

Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.

 

892,232

 

21,000

 

Nihon Parkerizing Co., Ltd.

 

364,284

 

26,000

 

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

 

1,923,908

 

102,000

 

Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.

 

762,457

 

93,000

 

Toyo Ink Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

 

342,915

 

330,000

 

Ube Industries, Ltd.

 

995,558

 

 

 

 

 

7,773,829

 

Commerce—0.79%

 

 

 

56,000

 

Canon Marketing Japan Inc.

 

1,011,313

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Communication—2.50%

 

 

 

80

 

KDDI Corp.

 

529,624

 

337

 

NTT Corp.

 

1,454,412

 

600

 

NTT DoCoMo, Inc.

 

829,632

 

6,400

 

Obic Business Consultants Co., Ltd.

 

371,139

 

 

 

 

 

3,184,807

 

Construction—1.27%

 

 

 

67,000

 

Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd.

 

879,821

 

80,000

 

Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd.

 

738,792

 

 

 

 

 

1,618,613

 

Electric Appliances—13.84%

 

 

 

55,800

 

Canon Inc.

 

2,931,920

 

16,700

 

Fanuc Ltd.

 

1,809,528

 

180,000

 

Fujitsu Ltd.

 

1,188,637

 

34,000

 

Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.

 

1,071,315

 

21,000

 

Kyocera Corp.

 

2,023,800

 

108,000

 

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

 

1,968,491

 

130,000

 

Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

 

1,382,469

 

37,700

 

Omron Corp.

 

1,004,659

 

43,000

 

Sony Corp.

 

2,273,779

 

27,000

 

Star Micronics Co., Ltd.

 

794,184

 

16,500

 

Tokyo Electron Ltd.

 

1,191,905

 

 

 

 

 

17,640,687

 

 



 

Electric Power & Gas—2.21%

 

 

 

14,500

 

Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc.

 

321,399

 

27,000

 

Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc.

 

639,194

 

22,000

 

Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc.

 

486,717

 

51,000

 

Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc.

 

1,367,636

 

 

 

 

 

2,814,946

 

Foods—0.56%

 

 

 

76,000

 

Nisshin Seifun Group Inc.

 

707,584

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glass & Ceramic Products—0.54%

 

 

 

38,000

 

NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

 

694,209

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insurance—2.27%

 

 

 

218,000

 

Aioi Insurance Co., Ltd.

 

1,287,941

 

139,000

 

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd.

 

1,607,475

 

 

 

 

 

2,895,416

 

Iron & Steel—5.26%

 

 

 

25,500

 

JFE Holdings, Inc.

 

1,754,420

 

380,000

 

Nippon Steel Corp.

 

2,866,002

 

360,000

 

Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd.

 

2,087,656

 

 

 

 

 

6,708,078

 

Land Transportation—2.17%

 

 

 

374

 

East Japan Railway Co.

 

2,770,602

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Machinery—9.00%

 

 

 

25,000

 

Daikin Industries Ltd.

 

976,284

 

73,000

 

JTEKT Corp.

 

1,269,379

 

95,000

 

Komatsu Ltd.

 

3,025,224

 

40,000

 

Makita Corp.

 

1,843,627

 

333,000

 

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.

 

2,380,365

 

77,000

 

Nippon Thompson Co., Ltd.

 

731,735

 

48,000

 

Ricoh Co., Ltd.

 

1,039,806

 

9,000

 

THK Co., Ltd.

 

213,065

 

 

 

 

 

11,479,485

 

Marine Transportation—1.02%

 

 

 

58,000

 

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd.

 

800,520

 

50,000

 

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha

 

504,902

 

 

 

 

 

1,305,422

 

Metal Products—0.85%

 

 

 

80,000

 

NHK Spring Co., Ltd.

 

722,031

 

12,300

 

Rinnai Corp.

 

366,949

 

 

 

 

 

1,088,980

 

Non-Ferrous Metals—1.56%

 

 

 

81,500

 

Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.

 

1,329,079

 

27,000

 

Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd.

 

658,426

 

 

 

 

 

1,987,505

 

Oil & Coal Products—0.39%

 

 

 

4,200

 

Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.

 

498,383

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Financing Business—1.27%

 

 

 

6,700

 

Orix Corp.

 

1,615,344

 

 



 

Other Products—0.76%

 

 

 

62,000

 

Namco Bandai Holdings Inc.

 

970,033

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pharmaceutical—3.19%

 

 

 

27,000

 

Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.

 

744,406

 

20,000

 

Ono Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.

 

1,040,811

 

74,000

 

Rohto Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

 

773,301

 

23,300

 

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

 

1,515,193

 

 

 

 

 

4,073,711

 

Precision Instruments—1.06%

 

 

 

32,000

 

Terumo Corp.

 

1,356,909

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Real Estate—2.96%

 

 

 

20,000

 

Atrium Co., Ltd.

 

606,721

 

65,000

 

Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.

 

1,710,383

 

120,000

 

Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd.

 

1,459,147

 

 

 

 

 

3,776,251

 

Retail Trade—3.82%

 

 

 

32,000

 

Nishimatsuya Chain Co., Ltd.

 

518,093

 

18,400

 

Nitori Co., Ltd.

 

945,211

 

70,000

 

Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd.

 

1,959,273

 

17,500

 

Shimachu Co., Ltd.

 

498,617

 

33,500

 

Xebio Co., Ltd.

 

946,074

 

 

 

 

 

4,867,268

 

Rubber Products—1.23%

 

 

 

74,000

 

Bridgestone Corp.

 

1,562,725

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Securities—2.00%

 

 

 

133,000

 

Nomura Holdings Inc.

 

2,552,334

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Services—3.75%

 

 

 

440

 

Dentsu Inc.

 

1,120,925

 

55,000

 

Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.

 

1,746,836

 

19,000

 

Secom Co., Ltd.

 

835,917

 

250

 

Tempstaff Co., Ltd.

 

333,110

 

40,500

 

Toho Co., Ltd.

 

743,275

 

 

 

 

 

4,780,063

 

Textile & Apparel—1.42%

 

 

 

226,000

 

Toray Industries Inc.

 

1,804,894

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transportation Equipment—11.66%

 

 

 

30,000

 

Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd.

 

1,184,111

 

29,000

 

Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd.

 

296,003

 

58,000

 

Denso Corp.

 

2,182,351

 

41,000

 

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

 

1,477,416

 

380,000

 

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.

 

1,690,941

 

19,500

 

Shimano Inc.

 

620,967

 

123,000

 

Toyota Motor Corp.

 

7,421,436

 

 

 

 

 

14,873,225

 

Wholesale Trade—5.49%

 

 

 

12,000

 

Autobacs Seven Co., Ltd.

 

361,016

 

45,000

 

Hitachi High-Technologies Corp.

 

1,091,720

 

 



 

121,000

 

Mitsubishi Corp.

 

3,589,542

 

100,000

 

Sumitomo Corp.

 

1,952,568

 

 

 

 

 

6,994,846

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Common Stocks (Cost—$105,703,609)

 

126,437,899

 

 

SHORT-TERM INVESTMENTS—0.09%

 

Principal
Amount
(000)

 

 

 

Value

 

 

U.S. DOLLAR TIME DEPOSIT—0.09%

 

 

 

109

 

Bank of New York Time Deposit, 0.05%, due 8/1/07
(Cost—$109,316)

 

109,316

 

 

 

 

 

Total Investments—99.25%
(Cost—$105,812,924) #

 

126,547,215

 

 

 

 

 

Other assets less liabilities—0.75%

 

958,533

 

 

 

 

 

NET ASSETS

 

(Applicable to 14,431,605 shares of capital stock
outstanding; equivalent to $8.84 per share)

100.00%

 

$

127,505,748

 

 


#   For federal income tax purposes, the cost of securities owned at July 31, 2007 was $105,718,102, excluding short-term interest bearing investments.  At July 31, 2007, the net unrealized appreciation on investments, excluding short-term securities, of $20,719,797  was composed of gross appreciation of $24,194,744 for those investments having an excess of value over cost, and gross depreciation of $3,474,947 for those investments having an excess of cost over value.

 



 

Item 2. Controls and Procedures.

 

a)           The Registrant’s Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer concluded that the Registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 30a-3(c) under the Investment Company Act of 1940) were effective as of a date within 90 days prior to the filing date of this report (the “Evaluation Date”), based on their evaluation of the effectiveness of the Registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures as of the Evaluation Date.

 

b)          There were no changes in the Registrant’s internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rule 30a-3(d) under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (17 CFR 270.30a-3(d)) that occurred during the Registrant’s last fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the Registrant’s internal control over financial reporting.

 

Item 3. Exhibits.

 

(a)          Certification of Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer of the Registrant as required by Rule
30a-2(a) under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (17 CFR 270.30a-2(a)) is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.302CERT.

 



 

SIGNATURES

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Investment Company Act of 1940, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

 

The Japan Equity Fund, Inc.

 

By 

\s\John J. O’Keefe

 

John J. O’Keefe, Vice President and Treasurer

 

Date: August 23, 2007

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Investment Company Act of 1940, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

 

By 

\s\John J. O’Keefe

 

 

Date: August 23, 2007

John J. O’Keefe, Vice President and Treasurer

 

 

 

 

 

\s\ Hiroshi Kimura

 

 

Date: August 23, 2007

Hiroshi Kimura, Chairman