The Japan Post Bank, the country’s largest bank by deposits, has appointed Kazunari Yaguchi as department head of its real estate investment department.
Yaguchi, formerly a senior executive at the Development Bank of Japan, was appointed on March 1, the Tokyo-headquartered bank said in an announcement made on its Japanese website.
The news of an external hire comes weeks after Japan Post Bank, part of Japan Post Holdings, decided to create a separate division for real estate investments and subsequently reshuffled its senior management. Tokihiko Shimizu, the former head of the private equity investment department, was given oversight of the real estate department on a temporary basis. According to the release, Shimizu has now been promoted full time to a more senior position overseeing the wider alternatives group.
Yaguchi comes from the Development Bank of Japan where he spent over two decades in several senior roles. He has worked towards building the bank’s real estate investment and finance business since 2000. Most recently he was the deputy general manager of its real estate finance department, providing debt and equity for domestic real estate projects as well as investing in overseas private funds.
With a portfolio totaling ¥204 trillion (1.5 trillion; $1.7 trillion) in assets, Japan Post Bank has started investing in alternatives such as private equity but is yet to make a real estate foray. A dedicated department is indication enough of its plans to diversify into the asset class.
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