Final Results

Fleming Japanese Inv Trust PLC
13 November 2002

The Fleming Japanese Investment Trust plc



                          Stock exchange announcement



             Unaudited results for the year to 30the September 2002
                     and changes to the Board of Directors



13th September 2002.



The Board of the Company hereby announce the unaudited results of the Company
for the year to 30th September 2002 as follows:



It has been a torrid year for equity market investors worldwide and it is scant
comfort to us that the falls in the Japanese stockmarket were rather less than
those elsewhere. In the year to 30th September 2002 the net asset value per
share fell by 14.6% to 180.2p, while the share price fell by 16.1% to 146.5p. In
common with investment trusts generally the discount widened, in our case to
18.7%.



It has been a year in which the continuing economic and political troubles in
Japan have taken something of a backseat to the unfolding anxieties elsewhere.
The events of 11th September last year were always going to lead to some
economic dislocation, but this has been compounded by the further unwinding of
the technology 'bubble', some questioning of corporate accounts following the
scandals of Enron and WorldCom, and now anxieties about possible war in Iraq.
The result has been clear; a worldwide collapse in share prices as investors
appeared to lose confidence in equity market investing. We are in little doubt
that this phase will prove temporary and that confidence will eventually return,
but we are equally in no doubt that part of the collapse in share prices has
been an unwinding of the excessive optimism of recent times and that there will
need to be a greater realism that stockmarket returns will be more modest in an
era of lower growth and lower inflation.



In one sense, Japan went through this process a decade or so ago, but its
recovery has been thwarted by a series of deep-seated structural problems.
Successive administrations have been slow to tackle the burden of
over-regulation or the more intractable problems of the banking sector. There
were higher hopes of the current Koizumi government and these may yet be met,
but the fact remains that however many new initiatives are proposed, or however
optimistic commentators may become from time to time, progress remains slow.
Thus, the approach of the investment managers is not predicated on the
achievement of reform, or the solution of problems in the banking sector, or on
a robust economic recovery. Rather, and this is the key, it is based on the
encouragement that they take from the evidence of change at individual company
level where increasingly they are seeing attractive opportunities to invest in
world-class companies with real growth prospects. We are convinced that this is
a policy which in due course will be rewarded.



The benchmark against which we compare our performance is the TOPIX index, but
this does not mean that the portfolio has to be a slave to it. In recent years
the Board has consistently encouraged the investment managers to back the stocks
and sectors that they believed to be attractive regardless of what the benchmark
position might be. A corollary to this is that because we are prepared to take
higher stock specific risks, the Board has judged it right to scale back the
risk associated with gearing. Portfolio gearing has thus fallen from 120% to
107%.



A Company such as Fleming Japanese, which invests wholly in Japan, will never
escape completely from the general level of returns of the Tokyo market, but the
financial record demonstrates that, by comparison with the index, our results
have been encouraging. Over the past 12 months our net asset value outperformed
the TOPIX index, (expressed in sterling) by 3.1% on a total return basis.
Perhaps more significantly, the cumulative effect over the past 5 years is such
that our net asset value is now some 35% higher than it would otherwise have
been had we just matched the index performance.



The Board

Ivan Kingston retires from the Board at the Annual General Meeting having
reached the age of 70. He was appointed a director in 1989 and over the past 13
years the Board much appreciated the specialist knowledge and counsel that he
brought to our discussions from his own background as an adviser to clients
including the Japanese government and important Japanese exporters.



In seeking a successor we deliberately sought a candidate who might provide a
similar input having had commercial business experience in Japan. A formal
exercise through an independent executive search firm was carried out during the
year, as a result of which David Pearson has been invited to join the Board. His
appointment will take effect from 1st January next year.



David Pearson is 52 and from 1988 to 1998 held senior positions in Sony,
becoming managing director of UK Electronics and country manager for Sony UK. He
is currently chief executive of NXT plc, which is a leader in flat loudspeaker
technology and as such has concluded a wide range of licensing agreements in
Japan. David Pearson has therefore direct business contact with many of the most
important Japanese corporations and personally visits Japan several times each
year.



There are no further disclosures to be made under paragraph 16.4 of the
Financial Services Authority Listing Rules.



Authority to Repurchase the Company's Shares

Last year, shareholders gave the Directors the authority to repurchase the
Company's shares for cancellation and over the period 8,035,000 shares were
repurchased at a cost of £14.4m, reducing the issued share capital by 4.1%. The
effect of purchasing the Company's shares at prices at a discount to net asset
value has been to enhance the net asset value per share and this contributed
+0.2% to the relative net asset value return over the period. The Directors
believe that circumstances could again arise when the mechanism would be of
benefit to shareholders. It is therefore proposed that the authority be renewed
for a further period.



Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Company will be held on 19th December at 2
p.m. at 10 Aldermanbury, London EC2. As has been the case in previous years, the
proceedings will include a presentation by the Investment Manager. After the
meeting, shareholders will be able to meet the Board and representatives of
JPMorgan Fleming.



David Ritchie

Chairman


The Fleming Japanese Investment Trust plc

Unaudited figures for the year ended 30th September 2002


Statement of Total Return (Unaudited)


                                          Year ended 30th September 2002     Year ended 30th September 2001
                                          Revenue    Capital    Total         Revenue     Capital       Total
                                          £'000      £'000      £'000           £'000       £'000       £'000



Realised gains/(losses) on investments             -      1,694      1,694          -    (61,158)    (61,158)
Increase in unrealised depreciation                -   (72,313)   (72,313)          -   (271,501)   (271,501)
Realised currency losses on cash and               -    (1,306)    (1,306)          -     (7,554)     (7,554)
short-term deposits
Realised currency gain on repayment of             -      3,602      3,602                  5,267       5,267
Yen loans
Unrealised gains on currency hedges                -      6,937      6,937                 22,680      22,680
Net change in unrealised currency gain on          -      2,321      2,321                  8,526       8,526
Yen loans
Other capital charges                              -       (34)       (34)          -        (20)        (20)
Income from Investments                        3,369          -      3,369      4,546           -       4,546
Other Income                                     232          -        232         86           -          86
                                             _______    _______    _______     ______     _______    ________

Gross return                                   3,601   (59,099)   (55,498)      4,632   (303,760)   (299,128)

Management fee                               (2,749)          -    (2,749)    (3,941)           -     (3,941)
Other administrative expenses                  (362)          -      (362)      (436)           -       (436)
Interest payable                             (1,552)          -    (1,552)    (3,394)           -     (3,394)
                                             _______    _______    _______     ______     _______     _______

Return on ordinary activities before         (1,062)   (59,099)   (60,161)    (3,139)   (303,760)   (306,899)
taxation

Taxation on ordinary activities                (505)          -      (505)      (681)           -       (681)

                                             _______    _______    _______     ______     _______     _______

Return on ordinary activities after          (1,567)   (59,099)   (60,666)    (3,820)   (303,760)   (307,580)
taxation

Loss per share                                 0.82p     31.08p     31.90p      1.95p     155.10p     157.05p



The Fleming Japanese Investment Trust plc

Unaudited figures for the year ended 30th September 2002


BALANCE SHEET                                                         30th September 30th September
                                                                                2002                2001
Fixed assets                                                                   £'000               £'000

Investments at valuation                                                     361,180             494,828

Net current (liabilities)/assets                                             (4,490)               6,012
                                                                             _______             _______
Total assets less current liabilities                                        356,690             500,840

Amounts falling due after more than one year                                (18,282)            (87,357)
                                                                             _______              ______
TOTAL NET ASSETS                                                             338,408             413,483
                                                                             =======             =======

NAV per ordinary share                                                        180.2p              211.1p

CASH FLOW STATEMENT
                                                                                2002                2001
                                                                               £'000               £'000

Net cash inflow/(outflow) from operating activities                              495               (444)

Net cash inflow/(outflow) from returns on investments and the                 21,518             (3,803)
servicing of finance

Net cash inflow from capital expenditure and financial                        51,969              59,435
investment

Net cash outflow from financing                                             (79,670)            (40,449)
                                                                             _______              ______
(Decrease)/increase in cash in the year                                      (5,688)              14,739
                                                                             =======              ======



The above financial information does not constitute statutory accounts as
defined in Section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. The comparative financial
information is based on the statutory accounts for the year ended 30th September
2001. These accounts, upon which the auditors issued an unqualified opinion,
have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies.





J.P. MORGAN FLEMING ASSET MANAGEMENT (UK) LIMITED

13th November 2002






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