How investors are playing emerging market opportunities in India and Japan

Investors are increasingly looking to emerging market exchange-traded funds for growth at a reasonable price.

David Mann, head of capital markets at Franklin Templeton, named India as one of the most popular countries with ETF investors in the past year.

"Part of the growth story, GDP has been strong," he told CNBC's "ETF Edge" on Monday. "[It] has been one of the emerging market standouts thus far, so India has been a great story."

The firm's Franklin FTSE India ETF (FLIN) has risen 18.19% in the past year, as of Tuesday's close. Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Infosys are among its top holdings.

Mike Akins, founding partner at ETF Action, suggested that although India is a great macro play, investors should be wary of rising valuations.

"If you just look at the India ETFs, they're trading right now anywhere from 22 to 23 times next year's earnings," he said in the same interview. "That's extremely elevated to most foreign ETFs and very elevated to itself, [with the] 10-year average being closer to 18."

For that reason, Akins pointed to Japan as a cheaper, more "conservative" overseas opportunity.

"Japan is an interesting story, just in terms of how much exposure they have across the globe, similar to the U.S., but their valuations are so much more depressed, trading at 14 times [the] next 12 months' earnings," he said.

Franklin Templeton's Mann agreed that Japan is regaining popularity with investors, who view the country "almost as its own region."

As of Tuesday's close, the firm's Franklin FTSE Japan ETF (FLJP) gained 12.58% in the past year. Its three largest holdings currently are Toyota Motor, Sony Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial.

"Japan obviously has got a very stated pro-growth mindset right now after years of