Investing in hedge funds by wealthy Japanese more than doubled in the year to last March, according to an authoritative survey from Japan’s financial watchdog, reports the FT.
The report, issued this week by the Financial Services Agency, also showed a healthy 41 per cent increase in all hedge fund sales by financial institutions. It comes at a time when renewed weakening of the yen is bound to fuel Japanese appetite for the yen carry trade, much of it among individual investors.
The survey, which carries the stamp of government authority, should help end scepticism among some analysts about the success of hedge funds in Japan, even though the data is more than a year old.The results of previous surveys, difficult to conduct because of the secrecy of the hedge fund industry, have been questioned by analysts, some of whom have cast doubt on whether hedge funds have gained a genuine foothold in the world’s second-biggest economy.
