Shifting Market Spurs Dai-ichi to Adjust $219 Billion Portfolio

Japan’s largest listed life insurer has a dilemma — its traditional investment strategies aren’t working.

Yields on Japanese government debt are too low. Foreign bonds have too much currency risk. And the company is cutting its holdings of domestic equities, which are surging, to avoid too much exposure to the asset class.

As a consequence, Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc. has begun to include more alternative investments in its 33.9 trillion yen ($219 billion) portfolio. The company is also looking at increasing mergers and acquisitions and will only start buying 30-year JGBs again once yields rise to 2%.

“We have to ...