TOKYO, April 19 (Reuters) - Japan's Meiji Yasuda Life plans to boost its yen bond holdings by 1 trillion yen ($12 billion) in the 2011/12 fiscal year that began on April 1, while extending the duration of the maturities, a senior executive said on Tuesday.
Japan's third-largest private life insurer, with total assets of 26 trillion yen, also plans to increase its holdings of unhedged foreign bonds by 170 billion yen, with a focus on dollar bonds, Yasuharu Takamatsu, Meiji Yasuda's director of investments, told a news conference.
He added that the insurer would trim its holdings of Japanese stocks and alternative investments such as real estate. ($1 = 82.675 Japanese Yen) (Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Edmund Klamann)