JAPAN CLARIFIES FUND MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS
The Finance Ministry has clarified
regulations governing fund management, satisfying overseas
critics who charged the rules were too tightly-drawn, ministry
officials and Western diplomats said.
    They said "double licensing" has been dropped so a foreign
fund management firm need apply only for a licence for its
Japanese subsidiary and not for the parent company as well.
    A foreign investment management company will be permitted
to employ only one fund manager in Japan, with another on
standby in the home country. Domestic companies must have two.
    In deciding whether a Japanese subsidiary of a foreign firm
is eligible to manage funds in Japan, the ministry will take
account of the amount of funds the parent company has under
management, a ministry official said.
    "This should make it very easy for foreign firms to meet the
criteria for a licence," he said without elaborating.
    He said the ministry expects to grant the first investment
management licences by the end of June. Some 135 firms,
including some 15 foreign companies, will probably be licensed
under the new law passed late last year.
 REUTER
