Day Trading with One Hand While Raising Kids! The Journey of a Mother of Two Who Reached 500 Million Yen in Assets by “Going All-In” on High-Dividend Stocks

From an initial investment of 2.4 million yen to 500 million yen in assets! Our guest today, Choruko, is a part-time investor making headlines for becoming a “hundred-millionaire” while on maternity leave. Her investment journey began amid anxiety about the future following her husband’s retirement and her own pregnancy.  

A grueling trading life spent operating her smartphone with one hand while raising a child; days of despair so deep that massive losses left her bedridden; and an indomitable mindset forged during a period of extreme poverty when she lived on just 100 yen a day. We trace her tumultuous journey—from multiple career changes to surpassing 500 million yen in assets.  

2.4 Million Yen Turned Into 15.84 Million Yen

Choruko began investing in stocks in 2011, while she was a college student. However, she did so using a stock account her father had opened in her name, purchasing Oriental Land Co., Ltd. shares with funds he had saved there as child support.

After that, she led a life completely unrelated to investing. However, some time after she started working and got married, her husband had to resign due to an adjustment disorder. When she reviewed her assets, she discovered that the market value of the Oriental Land shares she held in her brokerage account had skyrocketed.What she had purchased for 2.4 million yen had grown to 15.84 million yen by 2018, about seven years later.

“That’s when I truly realized the power of stock investing. Although my husband was able to return to work at a new company, I was pregnant and knew I would be taking maternity leave.Also, at the time, a consumption tax hike had been decided, and there was a sense that the economy was about to take a turn for the worse. I felt that from then on, I would need to grow my money through stock investing, so I began studying investing in earnest.” (Choruko / same below)

50 Million Yen in About Half a Year! The Trap of Feeling Invincible

The following year, in 2019, Choruko, who had gone on maternity leave for her first child, entered the stock market in earnest. She found that day trading—a strategy involving concentrating on a single stock and repeatedly buying and selling it multiple times a day—suited her perfectly.

While holding her baby and taking care of her child, she would operate her smartphone with one hand to place buy and sell orders.At the peak of her parental leave, her monthly trading volume sometimes exceeded 1,000 transactions, and her assets swelled to about 50 million yen in just half a year. Trading in those stocks generally went smoothly, even as she weathered events like the “COVID-19 crash,” and in January 2021, she finally reached 100 million yen in financial assets.

 “I think I was making about 500,000 yen a day. At that time, I felt a kind of ‘sense of omnipotence,’ as if I had a natural talent for investing. But that overconfidence led to a major failure later on…”

Despair after a 24 million yen loss in a single day

After becoming a “100-million-yen investor,” she shifted her focus to trading primarily in emerging growth stocks in search of even greater profits. Her strategy worked to some extent, and her streak of success continued.However, when she concentrated her investments on AI inside—one of these high-tech, high-priced emerging stocks—the share price plummeted due to selling pressure following the earnings announcement, resulting in a loss of 24 million yen in a single day.

 “I think I was acting purely like a gambler, with absolutely no basis for my decisions,”

He reportedly stayed in bed for a full day after suffering this massive loss.

“Having been brought home to the reality of the risks associated with emerging-market stocks, I decided to return to focusing primarily on large-cap stocks. Even so, I couldn’t keep up with the changing market environment, and I struggled to see results. By July 2021, my assets had shrunk to 68 million yen, so I closed out all my positions. In effect, I had ‘exited’ the stock market.”

Going All-In on High-Dividend Stocks to Reach 500 Million Yen

However, her return from this hiatus came just a few weeks later. Upon hearing the news that Mitsui O.S.K. Lines’ dividend yield had reached 10%, she intuitively felt, “I could live off the dividends alone without having to work,” and invested her entire portfolio in Mitsui O.S.K. Lines stock.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines’ stock then surged, and her assets quickly rebounded to 88 million yen. Having regained her momentum with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines stock, Choruko set her sights once again on becoming a “100-million-yen investor.” Around that time, her approximately two-and-a-half-year parental leave was also coming to an end (she had given birth to her second daughter following her first).

Afterward, in order to balance child-rearing and work, she changed her career path—moving within the company, changing jobs, and eventually going independent—and, along with these changes, her trading style also evolved. By 2022, her assets had once again reached 100 million yen. Since then, with each passing year, she has surpassed milestones of 200 million and 300 million yen, and by 2026, her assets had exceeded 500 million yen.

Having overcome devastating losses and the threat of being “forced out of the market,” what is the “unbreakable mindset” that allowed Chyoruko to build a fortune of 500 million yen? The paid version of [FRIDAY Subscription] provides a detailed look at her comprehensive diversification strategy—designed to mitigate the risk of future bankruptcy—the surprising frugality rules from her “living on 100 yen a day” days, and the specific “three must-watch stocks (named)” that bring her peace of mind.

▼ Choruko: She majored in pharmacy in college and, after graduation, worked as a Medical Representative (MR) for a foreign-affiliated pharmaceutical company. She later worked in public relations for a publicly traded company before going independent. She is currently a part-time investor who engages in stock investing while running a business providing PR and IR support to companies. She is the mother of two children.She began investing in earnest in 2019 and quickly reached 100 million yen in assets by January 2021. After experiencing several ups and downs, she established her own style of swing trading in large-cap stocks using the “Sakata Five Methods.” By 2026, her assets had surpassed 500 million yen.Her book, *How a Mom Investor Saved 100 Million During Maternity Leave* (Diamond Inc.), has been published. She appears in various finance magazines and on economic TV programs.

■ Click here to purchase *How a Mom Investor Saved 100 Million Yen Through Stock Investing While on Maternity Leave* (Diamond Inc.)

■ Click here for Choruko’s X (formerly Twitter)