Growth in Japan’s assets a springboard for two-way investment
02 Aug 2011
A recent report commissioned by Austrade and written by PricewaterhouseCoopers highlights the potential of Japan’s funds management market for Australian investors and wealth firms.
Savings and pension fund assets in Japan now exceed A$18.9 trillion, with a shift from low-risk products to higher-yielding investments. It has the second-largest investable pool behind the US.
Japan’s 1.6 million high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) account for 40.3% of Asia-Pacific’s total of these individuals. Opportunities lie in the retirement of “baby boomers”, intergenerational wealth transfer, the likely growth in defined contribution plans and asset management outsourcing.
There is also greater potential for increased Japanese investment into Australia’s financial services sector. Japanese investors are eyeing alternative investments offshore, and Japanese investment in Australia has quadrupled over the past five years to A$53 billion.
The Australian Government has been active in recent years in creating a regulatory environment attractive to investors. This has mainly focused on implementing tax reductions and exemptions relating to managed funds’ investment income and distributions.
|