Japan??s Teachers?? Mutual Aid Co- operative Society, with $7.6bn under management, will start investing in hedge funds as it seeks to diversify risks and boost returns. Toru Higuchi, a general manager in the asset management department, said that about 50bn yen will be invested in foreign bonds, while Japanese and overseas REITs as well as hedge funds will take as much as 12bn yen each.
The 47-year-old organization is adopting a new strategy designed to counter a decline in the value of traditional asset classes, such as stocks and bonds, which have made up the bulk of its main investments. It is targeting annual returns of 3 percent to 5 percent, Higuchi said.
??We have decided to focus on return, so we decided to invest in J-REITs, global REITs, hedge funds and domestic and foreign stocks,? Higuchi said. ??We need to have a certain level of return no matter how the market condition is.?
