24/02/2010 Author: Zaki Abushal

Japanese investors start to return after a barren 2009

By all accounts, 2009 was a lost year for hedge funds in Japan. The Japanese market is heavily based on trust and long-term relationships. The effects of 2008 will not disappear from the collective consciousness of Japanese investors, who pulled out of hedge funds en masse.

Interest in the industry  has dwindled almost to the point of none existence, so much so that last year virtually all hedge fund conferences in the country were cancelled.

Encouragingly, the outlook is a lot rosier for the industry in 2010. A listed hedge fund manager was recently out in the country drumming up interest in its products and institutional investors are definitely returning to the fray.

It helps if returns aren’t a discouragement. The year began well for hedge fund managers trading the country, a few were flat and a slightly negative but others returned strong first-month numbers: the Alphagen Tenro fund was up more than 5% and Martin Currie’s ARF Japan fund up 3.18% in the month.