Asian and emerging market investments for Japan’s institutional investors

199 delegates crowded into The Imperial Hotel in Tokyo for AsianInvestor's inaugural Japan Institutional Investment Forum.

Opening the event was Toshio Oya, Assistant Commissioner for International Affairs, Financial Services Authority (FSA) addressing the impact of new capital requirements in Europe, and the impact of deleveraging. Jame DiBiasio, AsianInvestor’s editor followed this with a review of the latest economic policy trends and their impact on worldwide economics, aided by Connie Bolland from ERA and Haruyoshi Mabuchi from Office Saintpaulia.

ETFs were up next with Hikaru Matsuno explaining market trends, and how ETFs can make themselves transparent to investors, on behalf of db X-trackers, followed by Paul Hoff from FTSE discussing the latest developments in equity benchmarks.

Next, Naho Nakajima from Russell Investments Tokyo office led a panel of senior investors and academics from IBM Japan, Asahi Kasei Pension Fund, Nihon Keizai Shimbun Pension Fund Hitotsubashi University and Sanno Unviersity, discussing optimal asset allocation. Nobusuke Tamaki, former Director-General, Planning Department, Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) followed this discussion with an incisive look at risk measurement with a particular focus on sovereigns.

After luncheon, Sam Sicilia, Chief Investment Officer at HOSTPLUS in Australia kicked off the afternoon by sharing with Japan’s asset owners an Australian super’s approach to asset allocation across emerging markets. Afterwards Taro Ogai from Towers Watson’s Tokyo office dived into a potboiler hedge funds panel. Following hot on the heels of AIJ’s collapse, panelists Takaaki Yoda and Yuji Kage had plenty to talk about, following which Takashi Jimba from Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund revealed the fund’s approach to asset management with a passive core strategy supplemented by active satellite strategies.

Proving that it is possible to be all things to all men – at least for a day – Yoshinori Kouta from Mercer Japan then tackled alternative investments ably aided by a mammoth panel comprising Kazuo Nishimura of Nomura’s PE arm, Yasushi Ando from New Horizon Capital, Mikihide Katsumata from Mobile Internet Capital, Yuichiro Kawaguchi from Waseda University, Song In Kyu, recently of Korea Post, Brett McCarthy from Challenger and Hideo Kondo from DIC Pension Fund.

Rounding out the day, David Marshall from CreditSights addressed the investability of banks around the world sector following the successive waves of new regulation, following which Tomio Sumiyoshi of Greenwich Associates summed up.

We are very grateful to our sponsors and exhibitors; Deutsche Bank Group db X-trackers ETFs, CreditSights, FTSE and STOXX for their support. A special thanks too for our supporting organization, CFA Society of Japan for all the assistance they provided in the buildup to the event.

We will be back next year in late February. Until then enjoy this report and successful investing!

Post Event Report
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Just a few comments from some of you:

“I’d appreciate all arrangement of the event, and the Forum was very interesting and informative. All in all, I found this event was interesting.”

Yuki Azuma, Pension Fund Association
 

“Let me congratulate you on the success of the forum. I had a good time talking with distinguished global investors. I hope our paths will cross soon.”

Toshio Oya, Assistant Commissioner for International Affairs, Financial Services Authority (FSA)
 

“Jonathan. It was our great pleasure supporting this event. I was glad to see it held successfully with 200+ participants. I would like to congratulate you on the great success of the forum following the intensive preparation! It was a deliberate mix of topics that focus on the issues that today’s institutional investors are faced to. Having exceptional speakers from FSA and GPIF also added attractiveness of the event. It was valuable to hear the asset allocation case study by a foreign institutional investor such as Mr. Sicilia’s.”

Yasuhiko Nakase, President, CFA Society of Japan

“It was, as always, a pleasure. From my perspective, it seemed that the event went well. I certainly had some interest in my presentation from various conversations during the subsequent networking break and a number have already contacted me via email seeking additional information or meetings.”

Sam SICILIA, Chief Investment Officer, HOSTPLUS
 

“I am delighted to hear that you had such a good turnout. I think you recruited some very credible speakers. I think it was also interesting that you had some overseas speakers from other Asia Pacific countries – I think this is AI’s real strength and value that you can bring.”

Naomi Takegoshi, Senior Trade & Inward Investment Adviser, UK Trade & Investment British Embassy
 

“Thank YOU very much for inviting me to the Forum. It was very stimulating and informative to me also. I sincerely hope that my panel discussion could be some help to the… in Japan, I believe we don’t have this kind of forum very often, so it gave good opportunity to get fresh ideas and exchange opinions among fund managers attending.”

Haruyoshi Mabuchi, President, Office Saintpaulia
 

“I enjoyed the panel discussion as well as the overall forum. I think the forum was generally well organized and covered interesting topics.”

Kazuo Nishimura, Investment & Research Department, Nomura Private Equity Capital Co., Ltd.

“Great turnout! I think it was a great conference.”

Noboru Hirabayashi, GE Capital, Real Estate Investment Management, Asia Pacific
 

“The forum has made open several important remarks and exchanges of viewpoints that will certainly be worth followed-on. Lessons learned from AIJ incident are some of those and also changing direction of alternative investments in the public and private pension funds is another. Comparative analysis between domestic and overseas viewpoints on the state of alternative investments in Japan and abroad may further trigger good discussions and ideas.”

Keiki Kimur, Japan Industrial Partners, Inc.

Again, we appreciate your participation and look forward to welcoming you at the conference next year.

Jonathan Watkin
Director
AsianInvestor
jonathan.watkin@haymarket.asia

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