Strategic Capital Inc., run by a former executive of the Murakami Fund, is seeking to raise more than ¥10 billion from overseas investors within a year for an activist fund that will invest in Japanese companies with excess cash and pressure them to increase shareholder returns.

"There are opportunities to change Japanese companies with backing from public opinion," Strategic Capital CEO Tsuyoshi Maruki said in a recent interview. The firm has about ¥9 billion in assets under management.

Japan has a long history of activist funds, with Christopher Cooper-Hohn's Children's Investment Fund Management UK LLP and Warren Lichtenstein's Steel Partners making takeover bids and urging domestic companies to increase returns.