TOKYO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Japanese investment trust fund inflows topped 300 billion yen ($3.4 billion) for the third straight month in November, lifted by strong demand for products related to Brazil, fund research data showed on Tuesday.
Brazil, with its resource-heavy economy and liberalised financial system, has become increasingly popular with cash-rich Japanese retail investors looking to take on more risk as the global economy picks up and as the Tokyo stock market lags other countries.
The initial launch total of these retails funds, also known as "toushin", fell by 19 percent in November from the previous month, but it surged by nearly seven times from a year earlier, data from Thomson Reuters fund research firm Lipper showed.
The initial launch amount dropped to 325.8 billion yen in November from a two-year high of 404.1 billion yen the previous month.
More than 70 percent of the total came from inflows into Brazil-related funds in November, Lipper said.
Daiwa Asset Management's 'Rio Wind' Brazilian equity fund attracted the strongest initial demand of any fund during the month, drawing 93 billion yen in funds from Japanese retail investors.
Pedro Bastos, a director of the Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association (ANBIMA), said last week that the readiness of Japanese people to invest in Brazilian equities and fixed-income products, as well as in the real, had picked up significantly in the last two to three months.
Japanese individuals hold $15 trillion in personal savings largely parked in low-yielding accounts. ($1=87.19 yen) (Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Joseph Radford) ((chikafumi.hodo@thomsonreuters.com; +81-3-6441-1855; Reuters Messaging: chikafumi.hodo.reuters.com@reuters.net)) ((If you have a query or comment on this story send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com))