A unique bond that provides investors with both financial returns and the personal satisfaction of helping children in poor countries through immunization will tap the Japanese market again next month.

New "vaccine bonds" targeted at individual investors will go on sale Feb. 9, following the first offering in Tokyo last March, with issuers confident the product will prove popular even in these turbulent times due to their AAA rating and strong interest among doctors.

At a Tokyo seminar in January, Alan Gillespie, head of an international development institution set up in 2006 to raise funds for vaccination projects, told about 200 potential investors: "It's sound both in financial terms and . . . for human benefits. The payback lies in lives saved.