Domestically domiciled foreign-denominated investment trusts are seen as a promising fund product that meets the needs of Japanese financial institutions, particularly banks. They also offer dividend tax advantages. While such funds can already be offered privately, several issues currently prevent them from being publicly offered to retail investors. These issues will hopefully be resolved so that foreign-denominated funds become a reality in Japan and gain popularity even overseas.

Quite a few globally renowned asset management companies are largely unknown in Japan. One such company is Natixis, a multi-affiliate organization of research-oriented asset management boutiques. NRI spoke with Natixis Asset Management Japan’s CEO Kinji Kato about the strengths of such a business model.