The Japanese government is planning to boost its financial centre - and is noticeably inviting foreign businesses to get involved.

Hong Kong-based "robo"-wealth management house Quantifeed is taking part in a scheme to improve Japan's status as a global financial centre.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's "Global Financial City: Tokyo" programme is drawing in 50 foreign asset management and fintech businesses over four years out to the 2020 financial year.

The Asian firm said it will use its capabilities to serve "Japan's traditionally underserved and underinvested" mass-affluent section of the population.

Expanding in Asia recently, Quantifeed opened an office in Singapore last year and in Sydney earlier this year. It has built robo-advisory offerings for firms including DBS, Cathay United Bank and Everbright Sun Hung Kai. And now it hopes Japan - in some ways a traditionally cautious market - will open up.

"Japan is a very important market, where we see strong impetus among financial institutions to enhance their digital wealth management offerings amid the push to broaden and improve the country’s investment universe and capabilities," Alex Ypsilanti, chief executive and co-founder of Quantifeed, said.
 
The Japanese government aims to make the population more financially literate and encourage people to take a wider view of investments. Traditionally, Japanese savers have tended to be highly cautious with a preference for cash and fixed income - a situation hard to sustain when interest rates are negative.

“Given Japanese retail investors’ focus on bank deposits, insurance and pension products, and their relatively low allocation to riskier assets such as equities, we see tremendous opportunity for Quantifeed to facilitate a shift to a broader and more diversified range of investment products. Our innovative tech solutions will ensure Japanese customers enjoy highly accessible, simple and convenient platforms to grow their savings,” Ypsilanti said.