Daido Life Insurance Co., part of Japan's only publicly traded life insurer, will increase investment in private equity and hedge funds to boost returns, while cutting holdings of lower-yielding domestic debt.
Japanese life insurers need higher returns to meet their payment obligations because the nation's benchmark interest rate is the lowest among major economies at 0.5 percent.
Holdings in the funds will be increased to about ¥370 billion in the year started April 1, from ¥320 billion at the end of March, Akio Shinju, general manager of investment planning at the Osaka-based company, said in an interview earlier this week.