JapanÆs insurers to boost hedge-fund exposure

The following article first appeared in the February 2008 edition of AsianInvestor magazine. Each month we offer a feature from the magazine. To subscribe, please email us at [email protected] seems to follow JapanÆs insurance industry. At the beginning of the decade, it was zero interest rates, negative spreads and a bombed-out stock market that made asset management a near-impossible task. The nadir came in 2003 when the Nikkei 225 Index bottomed at 7,600.Since…