Reuters- Japan’s largest private-sector pension fund manager, the Pension Fund Association, is starting to invest in hedge funds, another sign that the country’s conservative institutional investors are dipping into riskier assets.
Japan’s pension fund industry was slow to start investing in alternative investments, but an ageing population is forcing funds to seek higher returns to meet bigger payouts.
A spokeswoman for the association told Reuters it has created a team focused on alternative investment. The three-person team includes at least one hedge fund specialist and one real estate specialist.
A source in the hedge fund industry said the hedge fund specialist was hired recently.
