Norinchukin Bank

The Norinchukin Bank is a Japanese cooperative bank serving over 5,612 agricultural, fishing and forestry cooperatives from its headquarters in Tokyo. The bank is one of Japan’s largest institutional investors with an investment portfolio of more than US$400 billion and assets exceeding US$840 billion. The bank is well known as Japan’s largest hedge fund. Through overseas branches located in New York, London, and Singapore, the bank invests in bond, securitization product, stock, private equity, and real estate. Since huge assets as much as US$840 billion are managed by only around 3,200 employees, the bank is mainly engaged in asset management and large scale corporate financing. The asset management division is constituted of more than 300 MBA holders from top-tier schools. Its members include cooperative federations such as the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) and the Japan Fishery Cooperatives (JF). Norinchukin supports political lobbies who oppose agricultural imports and the deterioration of living standards in rural areas. Norinchukin has 41 offices throughout Japan and five overseas branches.