New Delhi, March 21 -- The billionaire-led Berkshire Hathway earlier this week disclosed it had increased its shareholding in Japan's five biggest trading houses. The Omaha-based conglomerate hiked its stake in Mitsui to 9.82%, in Mitsubishi to 9.67%, in Itochu to 8.53%, in Marubeni to 9.3% and in Sumitomo to 9.29%. The stake increases ranged from 1 to 1.73 percentage points. Berkshire's Japanese holdings were valued at $23.5 billion at the end of 2024, compared with their aggregate cost of $13.8 billion. Berkshire first bought into the Japanese majors in July 2019, followed by stake hikes in 2020 and 2023.

These five industrial powerhouses are among Japan's oldest and biggest sogo shosha, or general trading houses which trade in a wide ...