Anri Sugihara became a millionaire through investment. What is her investment philosophy?

Starting with 300,000 yen, she has reached 10 million yen in assets in only five years.

What is the new identity that Anri Sugihara has found through investing?

What made you start investing?

Anri Sugihara (hereafter, Sugihara): 18 years ago, I came to Tokyo at the age of 23. I couldn't make a living from my work in the entertainment industry alone, but I couldn't do part-time work either, so I had to think about how to make more money.

At that time, online securities were starting to become popular, and I could easily trade at home with just a flip phone and a laptop, so I started investing to make a living.

Do you remember the first stock you bought?

Sugihara: It's now delisted and no longer available, but I bought shares of Tokyo Dome. I didn't know much about it at the time, so I just chose stocks from companies related to my field of interest.

I love baseball, and I'm a fan of the Hiroshima Carp, so I thought, "The only way to watch Carp games for free is to buy shares of Tokyo Dome!" and I chose it without thinking too much (laughs).

After all, if it's not a company you know or a stock in a field you're familiar with, it's a hassle to check out its performance, and you can't enjoy investing. That hasn't changed much from then to now.

Did you feel any fear when you first tried to invest?

Sugihara: At first, I had no knowledge at all, so I didn't feel any fear. Actually, that was probably a good thing. I started out with the feeling that "investing will make money if I do it, right?", so now I feel even more glad that I started at a young age.

Investing is an opportunity to expand your potential

What made you decide to publish your own book?

Sugihara: To begin with, I didn’t tell my parents or even my agency that I was investing until I was over 30. However, about five years after I started investing, my investment gains exceeded 10 million yen, and I thought that I could say, “I’ve made this much money through investing.”

At that point, I thought it was about time, so I told my parents and agency about investing for the first time. I didn’t intend to publish a book right away, but I felt that I couldn’t talk to other people, or rather, that I shouldn’t, until I had first proven my track record to the agency.

But after I explained it well to the agency, I wanted to convey to them that even a girl like me who came from the countryside can increase her assets little by little, and that making a living from investing is not a dream, and this was the trigger for me to publish a book.

What do you pay attention to when investing, or what are your goals?

Sugihara: The things I pay attention to haven’t fundamentally changed since I was in my 20s. I value following my own rules, not being greedy, and accumulating small profits. When I first started investing, my main goal was to make some kind of living and to make even a little profit.

My most recent goal is to create an "investment share house." The hardest thing about investing for me over the 18 years I've been investing is that I didn't have any fellow investors. I didn't have a mentor, and the closer you are to someone, the harder it is to talk about money.

I don't think I talk about it with friends in private. So I thought it would be a meaningful time if I could create a community with people who are also interested in investing and get into investing while living together. I think the main reason for this was that I wanted a community space for investing.