Final Results

FIDELITY JAPANESE VALUES PLC

Preliminary Announcement of Unaudited Results

Chairman's Statement

For the year ending 31st December 2003

The Year's Results: NAV 60.4p (+17.6p; +41.1%)

The year 2003 turned out to be a much better year for your Company than any
since the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000. It started pretty
inauspiciously with the Japanese stock markets and indeed global markets
generally being depressed by the prospect of a war, the onset of SARS and
doubts about the robustness of any economic recovery in the United States of
America. These concerns abated during the next nine months and markets
everywhere rebounded significantly, making 2003 the first profitable year for
markets in the new millennium.

As a consequence of this our own net asset value rose 41.1% or 17.6p to 60.4p
per share; given that our goal is capital appreciation - making money for our
shareholders - this result can be considered satisfactory. The table below
provides a simple attribution analysis of our performance and shows that our
stock selection added just under one penny and our gearing just over four pence
to the net asset value. Again, without wanting to sound in any way complacent,
we regard it as satisfactory that the management of your Company added to
shareholder value.

Attribution Analysis                                           
                                                               
for the year to 31st December 2003                              
                                                               
Net Asset Value @ 31stDec `02              42.8p               
                                                               
Impact of the stock market                +13.8p         +32.2%
                                                               
Impact of stock selection                  +0.9p          +2.1%
                                                               
Impact of currency                          0.0p           0.0%
                                                               
Impact of gearing                          +4.4p         +10.3%
                                                               
Impact of other costs                      -1.5p          -3.5%
                                                               
Net Asset Value @ 31st Dec `03              60.4p         +41.1%

While it is our primary objective to make money for our shareholders, it is a
secondary and not unimportant objective that we do better than our competitors
and also the market. Our portfolio in yen terms did do a little better than the
market - it rose 34.3% while the benchmark index rose 32.2% - and we ranked
second out of four in the Association of Investment Trust Companies Japanese
Smaller Companies sector. In these respects too we would regard the progress of
the last year as satisfactory.

The Share Price and the Discount: Price: 51p (+16p; +45.7%)

Discount: 15.6% (18.3% in 2002)

As we have said in our annual reports during the course of the last few years,
we believe there is potential for Japanese stocks and shares to perform well
because of the considerable restructuring that has occurred amongst Japanese
companies generally and the effect that would have on corporate profitability.
Corporate profits rose by 72% in 2002 and are estimated to have risen by 19% in
2003 with 2004 growth forecast, as I write, at 11½ % - a fact that is drawing
the attraction of the Japanese stock markets to the attention of investors
generally. It is one of the reasons we believe that the demand for shares of
investment trust companies investing in Japan has increased and caused a
general narrowing of discounts in this subsector of the investment trust
market. As I write this statement the discount has narrowed further since the
year end and now stands at 9.6%.

Board Matters:

The year 2003 saw yet another enormous increase in the corporate governance
requirements of boards of directors of companies listed on the London Stock
Exchange. Based on reports produced by the Department of Trade and Industry in
the names of Mr Higgs and Sir Robert Smith, the UK Listing Authority (part of
the Financial Services Authority ('FSA')) has produced a new combined code for
companies to follow. In it, it commented that the governance of investment
companies had certain considerations of their own. As a consequence the
Association of Investment Trust Companies has drawn up its own code for its
members, one that your own Board of Directors deems to be more appropriate for
the governance of your Company. We will be using it as the template for our new
corporate governance procedures which will be decided upon during the course of
the year.

The FSA has also produced further listing requirements for all investment trust
companies in reaction to the investigation to the problems of the Split Capital
Investment Trust subsector. These new provisions include two which affect the
composition of your Board of Directors. I am Chairman of both Fidelity Special
Values and your Company, Fidelity Japanese Values. The FSA has determined that
being a director of two or more investment trusts under the same management
makes an individual dependent on that management house and incapable of
independent behaviour. It has also ruled that the chairman of an investment
trust company should be independent of management, a principal that we entirely
endorse. As a consequence of this I shall be standing down as chairman and a
director of your Company. I am truly sorry to do so - particularly as I believe
that after a number of difficult years, the prospects look as encouraging as
they have done in a long time. It is not my present intention to sell my shares
after stepping down.

Consequent upon my departure as Chairman and Director of your Company, the
Board of Directors has asked William Thomson to become Chairman of your
Company. William has vast experience of Japan with his company's business
having operated there for many, many years; he knows Japan very well.
Furthermore, he has been a director of investment trusts for the last 30 years
and is chairman of British Assets Trust. He brings knowledge and experience of
both Japan and investment trusts to the leadership of the Board. I wish him
well. Shareholders will note that he is standing for re-election as a director;
his colleagues believe that he has a made a considerable contribution to the
Company and recommend to shareholders that he be re-elected.

The FSA has also ruled that there may also be only one individual employed or
associated with the Manager on the board of an investment trust. We have two:
Simon Fraser, Fidelity International's Chief Investment Officer and Sir John
Stanley MP, who is a consultant to Fidelity. As our corporate governance
statement on page 22 states, we believe that it is important 'that the manager
should be party to the responsibility, authority and accountability to those
investing in their management.' As a consequence we believe that it is
important that Simon Fraser remains a director (his position as a director will
be subject to annual re-election by shareholders from next year onwards).
Unfortunately it means that Sir John Stanley will join me in stepping down as a
director. Anyone who has worked with Sir John will know that he is a very
conscientious director and he has a very independent nature; his conduct as a
director truly reflects this and I have not come across a more independent
director; rightly or wrongly however the rules require him to stand down. It is
a pity because he has served shareholders well.

The Board of Directors, with William Thomson and Nicholas Barber taking the
lead, will be looking for and expect to appoint two new directors within the
next twelve months. I will stand down as Chairman and as a Director on 31
December 2004 while Sir John Stanley will stand down on 31 March 2005.

Finally Nicholas Barber is standing for re-election, his contribution to the
board in his first three years as a director has been very valuable. He has
brought his experience of Japan, the Far East in general and of business, to
the Board's deliberations; his common sense and robust questioning have proved
valuable. As with Sir John, he has an independent nature and that attribute too
has been important. We, his colleagues, have no hesitation in recommending his
re-election to shareholders.

Gearing and Currency Hedging

Gearing: In last year's Chairman's statement I articulated our gearing policy
as follows. 'While the Directors maintain a long term approach to the level of
gearing - in part because we have a long-term approach to investing and in part
because we do not believe that short-term management of the borrowings is
likely to add value to shareholders - we undertake a thorough review of the
borrowings once a year at the board meeting in Tokyo - normally held in October
each year. We do of course keep a permanent eye on our gearing and we also have
certain trigger points established, so that if they are hit the level of
borrowings is reassessed.' At the recent board meeting in Tokyo we reviewed the
level of borrowings and concluded once again that they should be left at the
levels they were at.

We have two loans outstanding, one for Yen 1.5 billion (valued at £7.9 million
at the year end); it is due for repayment in August of this year. The other
loan for Yen 1.7 billion (valued at £8.8 million at the year end) is due for
repayment in November of this year. As part of its gearing review process the
Board will be considering the future of these two loans.

Currency hedging: In the light of the weakness of the yen against sterling so
far in 2004, I thought it would be worth stating the Board's policy on currency
hedging. The Board takes the view that neither it nor the Manager is likely to
be able to add to shareholder value through a short term currency hedging
programme, particularly as the Japanese Government's policy on the management
of the yen makes predicting its value so difficult. However the level of the
yen/sterling exchange rate is kept under constant review; only under extreme
circumstances would we be likely to depart from our policy.

Annual General Meeting: 6thMay 2004

I do urge as many shareholders as possible to attend the Annual General Meeting
which will be held at midday on 6th May 2004 at Fidelity's offices at 25 Cannon
Street in the City of London. It is the one occasion in the year when
shareholders can meet all of the directors as well as the investment manager
Asako Kibe. You may have questions, comments or suggestions which we would
welcome and which we feel that all shareholders should have the benefit of
hearing. Following the meeting Asako Kibe will give a presentation on the past
year and the prospects for the current one.

The Continuation Vote:

Every three years the Board of Directors puts a resolution to shareholders
concerning the continuation of the Company as an investment trust, investing in
the stocks and shares of smaller companies in Japan. Your board takes this
recommendation most seriously and certainly has not and does not take a
recommendation to continue for granted. The process of assessing the matter has
involved three criteria:

  * Whether it is likely that the net asset value of your Company will rise in
    the next three years;
   
  * Whether we have the best resources to take advantage of the investment
    opportunities, so as to make money and to do better than our peer group and
    our benchmark;
   
  * Whether our shareholders want the Company to continue in business.
   
Every year the Board of Directors conducts one of its board meetings in Tokyo.
In October 2003 we met there with the special purpose of considering the
prospects for the economy of Japan, for the corporate sector and its profits
and finally for those of smaller companies in particular - with a view to
assessing whether or not there were good prospects for a rise in the net asset
value over the next three years. It has to be said that we made a similar
assessment three years ago before recommending to you that the Company continue
in business and that that objective was not achieved. However we came away from
Tokyo believing that considerable progress has been made at the corporate level
in Japan, that balance sheets are enormously improved, that there has been some
consolidation of excess capacities and that there is now a more sympathetic
approach by Japanese management to shareholder value. Most of all, much as we
thought they would, both corporate profits and cash flows have increased
materially during the last two years and look set to do so again over the next
few years. In the past two years this merely resulted in lower price earnings
ratios rather than higher share prices; now that price earnings ratios are
really quite reasonable and much in line those of other countries, we believe
that during the next few years higher profits should result in higher share
prices.

There is no doubt that the economy is performing much better than it has for a
number of years. Not only is the robust recovery of the American economy during
the last 12 months helping Japanese exporters and Japan's economy generally but
there is an added dimension to the economy of the whole of the Far East area,
the dynamic growth of the economy of China. Exports to China are growing
rapidly and to the whole Far East area are now nearly twice as large as those
to the USA. On the surface of it at least, it looks thoroughly encouraging.

Looking back on the last three years, I am pleased to be able to report that
our net asset value was the best performer in our peer group but on the other
hand it did not outperform our benchmark. Neither we, nor indeed the rest of
our peer group for that matter, were able to increase our net asset value - in
large measure because the market was down over the period. This led your Board
of Directors to embark upon a rigorous review of the management resources at
our disposal in order to gain a better understanding as to why we had not
performed better than we did and to assure ourselves that there were prospects
of improvement. (we are always looking at ways of improving ourselves). We
conducted a review of the whole investment process of our manager in Tokyo;
your Board of Directors believes that the Manager has all the resources to do a
good job and fulfil the first two criteria referred to above.

Finally, the Board met with its stockbrokers to discuss shareholders' views in
particular in respect to a continuation vote. We have visited one or two large
shareholders and through our brokers, canvassed the opinion of a number of
further shareholders. From these meetings the Board concluded that there is
support for continuation and therefore general support for the Company going
forward. The Board believes there is also considerable investment demand for
Japan - particularly as its improved prospects are becoming more widely
recognised by investors around the world.

As a consequence of what I believe to be a thorough review by the Board of
Directors of the prospects for Fidelity Japanese Values and of the likely
demand by investors for Japanese smaller companies funds we have concluded that
we should recommend to you that you vote in favour of the Company continuing
business at the Annual General Meeting.

If any shareholder has concerns about this matter or any other matter
pertaining to the AGM, would you please contact me and I would be very happy to
review them with you..

Prospects:

I hope that I have already covered the prospects for Japan generally, for its
stock market and for the shares of smaller companies in particular. It only
suffices for me to say that we are enthusiastic about those prospects and
believe that, after nearly 15 years of bear markets in Japan, things do look a
lot better. Given the low margins and low return on capital that Japanese
companies generally have, the prospects for continued profit growth and thence
higher share prices, are encouraging. It is just possible that they may well be
better than those of many other markets. If so, it could be Japan's turn again
- at last!

Alex Hammond-Chambers

Chairman

11 March 2004

Enquiries: Barbara Powley, Fidelity Investments International - 01737 836 883

Alex Hammond-Chambers - 0131 222 9430

FIDELITY JAPANESE VALUES PLC

Statement of Total Return (incorporating the revenue account1) - unaudited

For the year ended 31 December 2003

                                          2003                    2002         
                               revenue capital   total revenue capital    total
                                 £'000   £'000   £'000   £'000   £'000    £'000
                                                                               
Gains/(losses) on investments        -  17,973  17,973       - (9,805)  (9,805)
                                                                               
Dividend income                    648       -     648     677       -      677
                                                                               
Interest income                      9       -       9       6       -        6
                                                                               
Investment management fee        (673)       -   (673)   (657)       -    (657)
                                                                               
Other expenses                   (266)       -   (266)   (204)       -    (204)
                                                                               
Exchange losses                      -    (14)    (14)       -    (61)     (61)
                                                                               
Net (loss)/return before         (282)  17,959  17,677   (178) (9,866) (10,044)
finance costs and taxation                                                     
                                                                               
Interest payable                 (286)       -   (286)   (384)       -    (384)
                                                                               
Exchange (losses) gains on           -    (40)    (40)       -     150      150
loans                                                                          
                                                                               
(Loss)/return on ordinary        (568)  17,919  17,351   (562) (9,716) (10,278)
activities before tax                                                          
                                                                               
Tax on ordinary activities        (66)       -    (66)   (119)       -    (119)
                                                                               
(Loss)/return on ordinary        (634)  17,919  17,285   (681) (9,716) (10,397)
activities after tax for the                                                   
period attributable to equity                                                  
shareholders                                                                   
                                                                               
(Loss)/return per ordinary                                                     
share                                                                          
                                                                               
Basic (note 2)                 (0.65p)  18.25p  17.60p (0.69p) (9.83p) (10.52p)

1. The revenue column of this statement is the profit and loss account of the
Company.

2. Returns per ordinary share are based on the net revenue loss on ordinary
activities after taxation of £634,000 (2002: loss £681,000) and the capital
appreciation in the year of £17,919,000 (2002: depreciation £9,716,000) and on
98,206,253 ordinary shares (2002: 98,825,157) being the weighted average number
of ordinary shares in issue during the year.

   As the basic and fully-diluted returns, calculated according to the provisions
of FRS 14, are identical, the fully-diluted return has not been disclosed.
Since the effect of the warrants outstanding on the first day of the accounting
period is not dilutive, they have not been included in the calculation of the
fully-diluted return.



All revenue and capital items in the above statement derive from continuing
operations. No operations were acquired or discontinued in the year.


FIDELITY JAPANESE VALUES PLC
Balance Sheet - unaudited as at 31 December 2003

                                                             2003          2002
                                                            £'000         £'000
                                                                               
Fixed assets                                                                   
                                                                               
Investments                                                72,616        55,492
                                                                               
Current assets                                                                 
                                                                               
Debtors - amounts falling due within one year                 865           548
                                                                               
Cash at bank                                                3,248          2921
                                                                               
                                                            4,113         3,469
                                                                               
Creditors - amounts falling due within one year                                
                                                                               
Fixed rate unsecured loans                               (16,660)             -
                                                                               
Other creditors                                             (731)         (288)
                                                                               
                                                         (17,391)         (288)
                                                                               
Net current (liabilities)/assets                         (13,278)         3,181
                                                                               
Total assets less current liabilities                      59,338        58,673
                                                                               
Creditors - amounts falling due after more than                                
one year                                                                       
                                                                               
Fixed rate unsecured loans                                      -      (16,620)
                                                                               
Total net assets                                           59,338        42,053
                                                                               
Capital and reserves                                                           
                                                                               
Called up share capital                                    24,551        24,551
                                                                               
Share premium account                                          40            40
                                                                               
Capital redemption reserve                                  1,780         1,780
                                                                               
Other reserves                                                                 
                                                                               
Other reserve                                              60,369        60,369
                                                                               
Warrant exercise reserve                                        2             2
                                                                               
Warrant reserve                                            10,198        10,198
                                                                               
Capital reserve - realised                               (30,687)       (7,193)
                                                                               
Capital reserve - unrealised                                2,410      (39,003)
                                                                               
Revenue reserve                                           (9,325)       (8,691)
                                                                               
Total equity shareholders' funds                           59,338        42,053
                                                                               
Net asset value per ordinary share:                                            
                                                                               
Basic                                                      60.42p        42.82p



FIDELITY JAPANESE VALUES PLC

Cash Flow Statement - unaudited
For the year ended 31 December 2003

                                                               2003        2002
                                                              £'000       £'000
                                                                               
Operating activities                                                           
                                                                               
Investment income received                                      570         557
                                                                               
Interest received                                                 9           6
                                                                               
Investment management fee paid                                (631)       (712)
                                                                               
Directors' fees paid                                           (32)        (54)
                                                                               
Other cash payments                                           (179)       (237)
                                                                               
Net cash outflow from operating activities                    (263)       (440)
                                                                               
Returns on investments and servicing of finance                                
                                                                               
Interest paid                                                 (286)       (389)
                                                                               
Net cash outflow from returns on investments and              (286)       (389)
servicing of finance                                                           
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
Financial investment                                                           
                                                                               
Purchases of investments                                   (42,489)    (16,682)
                                                                               
Exchange gains/(losses)                                          16       (377)
                                                                               
Disposals of investments                                     43,379      20,409
                                                                               
Net cash inflow from financial investment                       906       3,350
                                                                               
Net cash inflow before financing                                357       2,251
                                                                               
Financing                                                                      
                                                                               
Repurchase of ordinary shares                                     -     (1,470)
                                                                               
1.05% fixed rate unsecured loan drawn down                        -       8,300
                                                                               
2.16% fixed rate unsecured loan repaid                            -     (8,226)
                                                                               
Net cash outflow from financing                                   -     (1,396)
                                                                               
Increase in cash                                                357       1,125

The above statements have been prepared on the basis of the accounting policies
as set out in the recently published set of annual financial statements. The
figures for the year to 31 December 2002 have been extracted from the accounts
for the year ended 31 December 2002 which have been delivered to the Registrar
of Companies and on which the Auditors gave an unqualified report.

The annual report and accounts will be posted to shareholders as soon as is
practicable and in any event no later than 2 April 2004.