* Toushin value down a slim 19.8 bln yen to 59.4 trillion yen
* Yen's rise and weak equity prices hurt overall performance
* But toushins continue to see healthy inflows (Adds comments, details)
TOKYO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The value of Japanese retail- targeted mutual funds dropped for the first time in eight months in September as falls in share prices and the yen's rise hurt their performance, an industry body said on Wednesday.
But the publicly placed investment trust fund, or "toushin", market continued to see healthy inflows from retail investors, who invested their money into products such as Chinese equity funds and U.S. junk bond funds during the month.
The overall value of toushins fell a slim 19.8 billion yen, or 0.03 percent, to 59.39 trillion yen ($666.4 billion) in September from the previous month, Japan's Investment Trusts Association said.
In August, their value hit 59.41 trillion yen -- the highest since September 2008.
Falls in share prices, with the key Nikkei share average dropping 3.4 percent last month, and the rise of the yen against the dollar, hurt the overall value.
"We've been seeing constant inflows especially into equity funds ... but the recent rise in the yen and falls in share prices have hurt the overall trend," Fumio Inui, the association's vice president, told a news conference.
Overall net inflows totalled 356.2 billion yen in September, down 33 percent from 529 billion yen the previous month.
The value of stock investment trust funds, which make up 81 percent of the total, rose for the eighth straight month to 4.81 trillion yen, up 0.6 percent, or 268 billion yen, from August.
Stock funds saw net inflows of 643.6 billion yen, up from inflows of 290.2 billion yen in August.
The level of net inflows was the highest since December 2007 as a raft of equity funds were launched in September.
Retail investors poured their money into international equity funds and funds of hedge funds, while they continued to pull out of domestic stock funds, the association said.
The value of bond funds fell 262.8 billion yen, or 2.9 percent, to 8.82 trillion yen in September.
The bond fund value fell as investors pulled their funds from money reserve funds (MRFs), but that they could have shifted their money into places such as equity funds.
Retail-targeted trust fund holdings of foreign stocks, bonds and money market instruments rose by 479.9 billion yen to 27.4 trillion yen in September, the association said.
Foreign stock investments increased by 120.5 billion yen to 5.6 trillion yen, making up 20.6 percent of total overseas asset holdings.
Foreign bond holdings rose by 19.7 billion yen to 17.1 trillion yen, comprising 62.5 percent of total overseas holdings.
The value of privately placed investment trust funds, which are mainly invested in by institutions, fell 0.9 percent, or 251.6 billion yen, to 28.76 trillion yen in September. ($1=89.12 yen) (Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Joseph Radford)