IndexFunds.com Staff

Vanguard Approval in Japan

Vanguard Investments Japan, the Japanese arm of The Vanguard Group, announced that it has been approved for membership in the Japan Securities Dealers Association.

The approval, coupled with the grant in December of a broker-dealer license form the Kanto Local Finance Bureau, gives Vanguard increased access to Japan's nascent mutual fund market. Thus far, Vanguard has launched two mutual funds in Japan: a Small Cap Index Fund and a Wellesley Income Fund.

"We are looking forward to building our presence in Japan and expanding our offering of Vanguard's high-quality investment funds to Japanese investors," said Shigeru Shimizu, who heads up Vanguard Investments Japan.

With more than 15 million shareholder accounts worldwide, Vanguard's global assets now total some $565 billion, of which about half is invested in index funds. Vanguard now ranks third globally in amount of indexed assets under management (behind Barclay's Global Investors and State Street Global Advisors). Vanguard ranks 8th globally among all money managers.