1. Market Overview
1.1 State of the Market
Financial assets held by Japanese households have been
increasing steadily for years, now reaching over JPY2,000 trillion.
Building on this, a number of various types of investment funds are
being marketed, offered and distributed in the Japanese market. The
most widely used form of investment fund in Japan is an investment
trust (toushi shintaku), created pursuant to the Act on
Investment Trusts and Investment Corporations of Japan (the
Investment Trusts Act), which is offered on both retail markets
(through public offerings) and institutional markets (mostly
through private placements).
The Investment Trusts Act also provides for an investment
corporation (toushi houjin), which is typically used for
real estate investments and is popularly known as a Japanese Real
Estate Investment Trust (J-REIT), which is something of a misnomer
given that all existing J-REITs use the form of an investment
corporation rather than
