In Japan, many companies have something called 株主優待, translated to shareholder benefits and something I'll just call stock perks. Although a few stocks in other countries have a similar system, it's very popular in Japan and makes it a fun aspect to investing here. Although there are countless sites in Japanese which follow these perks, English content is incredibly limited and what exists is usually just mentioning a few stocks, usually incorrectly.
As someone who really enjoys investing in the stock market here, I've decided to create this site to inform people of the different types of perks available and their requirements. This is just a hobby project of mine, I'll try to keep it updated when things change but I do apologize if any of the information is outdated or incorrect!
What kind of perks can you get? All sorts, and that's what makes the market so interesting! Here are a few examples:
Products or samples
Membership to a paid service
Points to be used on their website
Catalogs where you can choose your own gift
Flat-discount coupons or the ability to buy products at reduced prices
Gift certificates
QUO cards
There are hundreds of companies which give perks!
Simple, just hold on to enough shares during the rights date.
For almost every company, the minimum amount of shares needed are 100, equal to 1 unit of stock. There are a few that require less, usually when a company does a reverse-split, but these are extremely rare.
Many companies give you extra bonuses for holding more shares, although these usually do not scale. For example, 100 shares will give you a 1000yen voucher, while 500 will give you 3000yen.
Each company has a specific date where you need to hold the shares in order to get the perks, usually one of the last few days of a certain month. It's similar to the ex-dividend date, and you can sell the stock once this date passes and still get the perks.
It usually takes 2-3 months for the perk to reach you. So, if you hold something with a rights day at the end of March, you should expect to get it sometime in June. It will be automatically mailed to the address on record, so if you move make sure to update your brokerage account right away!
Although this is an option, stocks tend to rise right before the rights day and fall right afterwards, so you're probably going to lose more than the value of the perk in a decayed stock price.
There is a strategy known as 'cross trading', where you buy and short a stock at the same time and are still eligible for the perk that way. Some brokerages can even do this for you, although there are fees involved. I have not done this myself and can't offer any insight into the strategy.
Also, if there are extra benefits for holding on to a stock for a period of time, selling and re-buying will reset your timeline and you will start as a new shareholder.
This site is geared towards residents in Japan! Some international exchanges may let you buy Japanese stocks but I have no idea how perks are done in that case and from what I've heard it's either incredibly difficult or impossible to take advantage of them, and most of them would be useless outside of the country anyway. Please feel free to contact me if you do have any information regarding that!