✦ The Japan CompounderNarrow moat

The most successful late-Buffett trade keeps compounding under his successor: in May 2026 Berkshire crossed the 10% ownership threshold in Sumitomo and Marubeni, completing the set — more than a tenth of all five Japanese trading houses: Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo¹. The arithmetic explains the persistence: roughly $15.4 billion invested is worth about $35.4 billion, financed cheaply in yen-denominated debt that hedges the currency while the houses' dividends and buybacks compound the position².

The trading houses are, in effect, little Berkshires — diversified owners of energy, commodities, logistics and consumer assets with disciplined capital allocation — which makes the bet a philosophical statement as much as a trade: Berkshire's model, purchased abroad at half the multiple it trades at home. The companies have welcomed the ownership and lifted their ceilings above 10% by agreement. Watch the stakes' next increments and the yen financing's rollover terms — and whether Abel extends the pattern to a sixth name or a second country, which would mark the trade graduating into doctrine.