J-Inc, a newly formed Japanese mid-market private equity firm, is targeting JPY 60bn (USD 406m) for its debut fund, according to three sources familiar with the situation.
The firm was established by Soichi Yamaguchi, one of two founders of Nippon Investment Company (NIC), which itself was a spinout from Bain Capital. Yamaguchi left NIC last year.
J-Inc has already reached a first close of approximately JPY 20bn, the sources said. Most of the capital has come from Japan-based LPs, and the firm is now reaching out to global institutional investors, two of the sources added.
Yamaguchi began his career at McKinsey & Company and then spent nine years at Bain. He launched NIC in 2017 with Hidetoshi Akisato, a fellow Bain alumnus, and Shuhei Yamashita, founder of Tokyo-listed logistics technology services provider CRE.
NIC, which claims to provide strategic support and management resources to middle-market companies, has raised three funds. The most recent closed last year at the hard cap of JPY 63bn.
Japan private equity fundraising reached a record USD 13.9bn in 2024, with USD 8bn of that going to buyout strategies, according to AVCJ Research. This year has been slower, with USD 5.1bn raised to date, but Japan and South Korea are the most active geographies in terms of country-focused funds.
J-Inc is among a cluster of emerging middle-market Japanese GPs. Others include Corporate Support Research Institute (CSRI) and REVA Corporation, both of which have closed debut funds in the past year. CSRI raised JPY 25bn. REVA didn’t disclose its total, but previously said it expected to raise JPY 30bn.
D Capital, a Unison Capital spinout established in 2022, closed its second fund in March on JPY 67bn, beating a target of JPY 50bn. Global investors feature in the LP base for the first time.
J-Inc declined to comment
Source: ION Analytics
