Bloomberg – Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co., with 23 trillion yen ($244 billion) in assets, said it will cut its investments in hedge funds this year as it switches to investments with steadier returns.

Japan’s third-largest life insurer will reduce its allocation to the industry by “several tens of billions of yen,” from 64.6 billion yen at the end of last fiscal year through March 31, said Shinji Makino, manager of the insurer’s investment planning division. The Tokyo-based insurer last year slashed its hedge-fund holdings by more than 40 billion yen.

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Interactive Investor – Japan’s Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co said on Monday it planned to cut its unhedged foreign bond holdings while increasing its hedged foreign bond holdings this business year to offset currency risks.

The nation’s third-largest life insurer by assets also said it has been experimenting with trades in yen swap rates since March to seek higher yields, and said it would boost its yen bond holdings mostly in super-long Japanese government bonds.

Meiji Yasuda said it planned to reduce its unhedged foreign bond holdings by about 100 billion yen ($997 million), and raise its currency-hedged foreign bond holdings by 200 billion yen in the year to March 2010.

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