Van Biema Value Partners LLC, a New York-based fund of hedge funds with $600 million, is looking to increase allocations to Japan because it is a haven from the Greek crisis and China's share-market rout.

Japan "is not without its own set of problems, but relative to the rest of the world, it is an island of sanity," said founder Michael van Biema, a former Columbia Business School professor.

Companies here offer limited downside because they tend to have more cash and lower debt on their balance sheets, Van Biema said in an interview in Tokyo on July 8. The fund of hedge funds, which has invested about $50 million to $75 million in Japan, is looking to boost its investment in the country by 2 percent to 5 percent of the total global portfolios, he said.

A possible exit of Greece from the eurozone and a slump in Chinese stocks from a June peak have prompted investors to seek safer places to park their money. Van Biema tripled its investment in Japan in 2011 before the Nikkei 225 stock average doubled to the current level of around 20,000.

"There aren't that many places that have really attractive investment opportunities at the moment," Van Biema said. "There are a lot of crises going on and there is a lot of overpricing going on, in the U.S. for example. Europe is on the verge of a crisis."

The Nikkei 225 stock average has gained about 14 percent this year, while the Dow Jones industrial average is down 1.5 percent and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index is up 11 percent.

The company is considering adding a Japan-only fund, van Biema said. The Van Biema Asia Value Master Fund, which consists of 14 funds, has outperformed the MSCI Asia Pacific Index since 2008. Van Biema declined to give the fund's performance.

Japan's aging population has created investment opportunities in industries such as health care, he said. A shortage of labor will make some immigration-related sectors such as employment agencies and lower income housing attractive, while decaying infrastructure will benefit real estate and construction companies, he said.

"Everybody says that the aging population in Japan is a big negative," van Biema said. "Maybe in a very long term it is a big negative, but in the shorter term, there are a number of companies that are going to benefit from that trend."

Recent improvements in corporate governance at companies such as Fanuc Corp. have a good chance of trickling down to smaller Japanese firms, he said.

Van Biema, formed in 2004, manages portfolios consisting of a total of 38 hedge funds globally.

Among its investors are pension funds, endowments, foundations and high-net-worth individuals.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is striving to attract investment by pushing companies to better use their cash and to make more profits. A stewardship code was introduced last year, followed by a corporate governance code in June.

"The reality is that money will flow from the West into Japan and that will increase the valuation because of a general perception that Japan is no longer the same Japan than it was than five years ago," said van Biema.