TOKYO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Inflows into newly launched Japanese investment trusts dropped 47 percent from the previous month to $1.2 billion in November due to a dearth of hit funds, data from fund research company Lipper showed.
Still, retail investors continued to put money into existing mutual funds as the seek higher returns than those offered by the low-yielding bank and postal savings accounts where they have historically kept the bulk of their assets.
Newly launched investment funds, also known as "toushin", drew 100.3 billion yen ($1.2 billion) of fresh retail money in November, down from 188.3 billion yen the previous month, Lipper data showed.
Inflows dropped 69.2 percent against the same month a year earlier, down for the seventh straight month on a year-on-year basis.
"We've seen a lot of new popular funds over the last few years, but we haven't heard of a new big hit product recently," an official of a Japanese brokerage said.
"There are already a variety of funds in the line-up. Over the past few months, retail investors appeared to be more happy about buying the existing funds."
The overall asset size of Japan's retail investment trust market came to 61.87 trillion yen ($741 billion) in October, according to the Investment Trusts Association. That is larger than the economies of Turkey and Indonesia.
The association has not yet disclosed data for November.
Net inflows overall, including new and existing investment trusts, totalled 408.7 billion yen in October. In September, inflows reached a three-year high of 934.6 bln yen, the association's data shows.
Retail investors, a major force in financial markets with some $15 trillion in personal assets, have been actively putting money into investment trusts targeting China, Brazil and other emerging markets.
High-yield bond funds and currency-selective thematic funds have also have attracted strong demand in the last few years.
A Kokusai Asset Management fund that invests in shares of China, Indonesia and India drew the strongest demand among new funds launched in November, with initial inflows totalling 18.9 billion yen. ($1=83.50 Yen) (Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Nathan Layne)