Japan: 30 candidates
Japanese listed companies worth ¥30bn or more, excluding banks, insurers, brokers and utilities. Figures from each company's latest annual report; market value from today's price. Ranked from the lowest EV/EBIT: what it would cost to buy the whole company including its debt (enterprise value = market value + debt − cash), as a multiple of its operating profit. Lower is cheaper. It is like a P/E ratio, but counts debt and cash and uses operating profit, which interest and one-off items distort less. Only companies with a Piotroski F-score of 7 or more out of 9. The F-score counts nine checks: profitable, positive cash flow, and profits, balance sheet and efficiency improving on the year before. In the past tests, this was the only method compared that beat the market in all four (two periods each in Japan and the US). Return on capital (Greenblatt's definition: operating profit ÷ (net working capital + net fixed assets)) and warning signs are shown for reference. A company joins at rank 30 or better and stays until it falls below 50.
| # | Company | EV/EBIT | F-score | Return on capital | PER | PBR | Warnings | Why it may be cheap (AI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chiyoda Corporation6366 | 0.6x | 7/8 | 500%+ | 2.0x | 1.49x | Possible one-off profit | Market discounts this Mitsubishi-controlled contractor over its no-dividend preferred redemption and history of volatile, project-driven earnings. |
| 2 | PARKER CORPORATION9845 | 1.8x | 9/9 | 24% | 7.3x | 0.63x | — | Parent firm and founding families hold over 30%, and heavy reliance on autos keeps the market wary despite record profits. |
| 3 | Mars Group Holdings Corporation6419 | 1.9x | 7/9 | 32% | 8.3x | 0.64x | Shrinking | Pending |
| 4 | SHINNIHON CORPORATION1879 | 2.0x | 9/9 | 56% | 8.8x | 1.00x | — | Profits hinge on Tokyo condo prices, and rate-hike fears plus founder-family ownership keep the stock's valuation subdued. |
| 5 | Fujii Sangyo Corporation9906 | 2.3x | 8/9 | 32% | 7.5x | 0.82x | — | A founder-family, supplier, and regional-bank held wholesaler seen as static, so the market mostly ignores its shares. |
| 6 | Gamecard Holdings,Inc.(旧英訳名 Gamecard-Joyco Holdings,Inc.)(注)2025年6月19日開催の定時株主総会の決議により、2025年10月1日か ら会社名及び英訳名を上記の通り変更いたしました。6249 | 2.7x | 7/9 | 48% | 12.4x | 0.67x | Shrinking | Shrinking pachinko-hall market plus cross-held stakes by rival machine makers leave the market unwilling to re-rate the stock. |
| 7 | PIA CORPORATION4337 | 2.7x | 8/9 | 39% | 11.8x | 3.64x | Heavy debt | The market discounts the fading Expo-driven profit surge and a cautious dividend policy resumed only after six dividend-free years. |
| 8 | Shinwa Co., Ltd.7607 | 2.7x | 7/9 | 38% | 12.5x | 0.95x | — | Seen as a Toyota-dependent supplier with a stable, cross-held shareholder base that keeps the stock inert. |
| 9 | ASAHI BROADCASTING GROUP HOLDINGS CORPORATION9405 | 3.1x | 9/9 | 12% | 8.1x | 0.43x | — | Loyal holders like Asahi Shimbun and TV Asahi, plus broadcast-law ownership limits, shield this ad-dependent broadcaster from market pressure to unlock value. |
| 10 | TAISEI ONCHO CO., LTD.1904 | 3.2x | 7/9 | 59% | 9.0x | 1.03x | — | Seen as a low-margin subcontractor to major builders whose cash pile sits with insider shareholders instead of being returned, the market largely ignores it. |
| 11 | NICHIRIN CO.,LTD.5184 | 3.3x | 7/9 | 21% | 9.8x | 0.79x | — | Over 90% auto-dependent, with North American profit hit hard by tariffs, keeps the market wary despite steady group earnings. |
| 12 | transcosmos inc.9715 | 3.5x | 8/9 | 67% | 10.2x | 0.96x | — | Closely-held ownership by the founding family and a foundation, plus fears that AI will erode its labor-intensive outsourcing model, keep investors cautious. |
| 13 | TACHI-S CO.,LTD.7239 | 3.5x | 7/9 | 24% | 8.8x | 0.77x | — | Automakers' shifting model strategies and plant relocations keep swinging earnings, so the market stays cautious. |
| 14 | NAKANO CORPORATION1827 | 3.5x | 7/9 | 30% | 11.4x | 0.97x | — | Closed founder/foundation/bank ownership and a reserve-first capital policy keep the market wary of profit driven by a one-off overseas project. |
| 15 | Densan System Holdings Co., Ltd.4072 | 3.5x | 7/9 | 141% | 12.0x | 1.40x | — | Regional banks dominate its shareholder base, and its conservative retention-first dividend policy make the market view it as a low-growth regional IT holding firm. |
| 16 | SANKYO CO., LTD.6417 | 3.6x | 7/9 | 123% | 8.9x | 1.67x | — | Investors stay cautious because pachinko/pachislot sales hinge on hit titles and wary parlors delay new machine purchases. |
| 17 | MURAKAMI CORPORATION7292 | 3.6x | 8/9 | 22% | 13.1x | 0.81x | — | A tight web of founding-family, regional-bank, and hotel-company shareholders leaves little outside pressure to change capital policy. |
| 18 | NISSAN SHATAI CO., LTD.7222 | 3.6x | 9/9 | 14% | 18.3x | 0.69x | — | Heavy 98% sales dependence on parent Nissan keeps the market from rewarding improved profits. |
| 19 | OHASHI TECHNICA INC.7628 | 3.7x | 8/8 | 15% | 14.5x | 0.73x | — | Captive supplier ties to automakers and a stable, insider-heavy shareholder base explain why the market keeps ignoring this cash-rich stock. |
| 20 | FJ NEXT HOLDINGS CO., LTD.8935 | 3.8x | 8/9 | 20% | 6.6x | 0.81x | Profit not backed by cash | Distrust of investment-condo sellers plus founder-controlled, closely held shares leave the stock ignored despite growing profit. |
| 21 | DOSHISHA CO.,LTD.7483 | 4.0x | 7/9 | 40% | 12.9x | 1.15x | — | A conglomerate wholesaler with 30-plus niche units, a founder-family holder above 35%, and cash piling up debt-free with no clear use. |
| 22 | MARUZEN CO.,LTD.5982 | 4.1x | 8/9 | 42% | 12.4x | 1.24x | — | Owned largely by a holding firm and Hikari Tsushin-linked funds, it parks record cash in time deposits instead of returning it. |
| 23 | Bell-Park Co.,Ltd.9441 | 4.1x | 7/9 | 81% | 9.1x | 1.40x | — | Nearly 90% of sales depend on one telecom carrier whose contract terms it controls, raising doubts about the company's growth durability. |
| 24 | TV TOKYO Holdings Corporation9413 | 4.1x | 9/9 | 37% | 11.8x | 0.85x | — | Nikkei's over-30% stake and the structural decline of core terrestrial TV ad revenue keep this holding company's shares depressed. |
| 25 | NEW COSMOS ELECTRIC CO.,LTD.6824 | 4.2x | 8/9 | 26% | 9.4x | 0.85x | — | Family, business partners and Iwatani hold most shares, and growth relies on a US detector surge, so the market stays cautious. |
| 26 | ENDO Lighting Corporation6932 | 4.2x | 8/9 | 16% | 8.7x | 0.76x | — | A founder-linked holding company controls over a third of shares, leaving low float and thin institutional interest. |
| 27 | ASIA PILE HOLDINGS CORPORATION5288 | 4.3x | 8/9 | 28% | 7.5x | 1.02x | — | Cement supplier, banks, and an employee stock plan dominate as stable holders while order-dependent, delay-prone pile-foundation work limits the growth narrative. |
| 28 | MATSUI CONSTRUCTION CO., LTD.1810 | 4.3x | 8/9 | 26% | 9.6x | 0.73x | — | Stable bank and founding-family shareholders, plus an explicitly size-capped "right-sized" growth policy, leave this contractor overlooked. |
| 29 | UNIPRES CORPORATION5949 | 4.4x | 7/9 | 10% | — | 0.39x | Loss-making | Heavy Nissan dependence and steelmaker cross-holdings peg it as a captive supplier, not a growth story. |
| 30 | DAISUE CONSTRUCTION CO., LTD.1814 | 4.4x | 9/9 | 45% | 9.8x | 1.48x | — | Pending |
Is each candidate oversold or overheated right now? See Timing Watch →
Warnings (shown only): Loss-making = Operating or net loss.; Shrinking = Sales down and profit down 20% or more over two years.; Profit not backed by cash = Recent profits exceed operating cash flow by more than 10% of assets.; Heavy debt = Net debt over 5x operating profit, or equity below 20% of assets.; Share dilution = Share count up 10% or more in three years.; Possible one-off profit = Latest operating profit is more than twice its three-year average, and may be inflated by one-off items.
This site ranks companies whose share price is low relative to their profits, using public filings and market prices, and has AI draft hypotheses on why they are cheap from those filings. The hypotheses are unverified. Nothing here is a price forecast or a recommendation to buy or sell. Not investment advice.
Updated 29 Sep 2026 12:31 JST