Photos: Japan Institutional Investment Forum

More than 200 delegates crowded into The Imperial Hotel in Tokyo for AsianInvestor's inaugural Japan Institutional Investment Forum.

The packed one-day event saw an opening address from Toshio Oya, assistant commissioner for international affairs at the nation's Financial Services Authority.

That was followed by a Q&A session on the global macroeconomic outlook as well as the future for the yen, featuring panellists Connie Bolland of Economic Research Analysis and Haruyoshi Mabuchi of Office Saintpaulia.

There were two presentations either side of a break, one on ETFs as an asset allocation tool and access to alternatives and frontier markets by Hikaru Matsuno of Deutsche Securities Japan, and the other on the new era of equity benchmark development by Paul Hoff of FTSE Group.

Naho Nakajima of Russell Investments Japan moderated a session on rethinking asset allocation for pension investments, featuring professors Toshiki Honda of Hitotsubashi University and Yousuke Mitsusada of Sanno University, Akihiko Ohwa of IBM Japan, Hiraku Matsumoto of Asahi Kasei pension fund and Shunichi Kubo, Nihon Keizai Shimbun pension fund.

In a final presentation before lunch, Nobusuke Tamaki of Otsuma Women's University spoke about investing in a post risk-free world for Japanese institutional investors.

Hostplus CIO Sam Sicilia put forward a case study giving a foreign institutional perspective on allocating to emerging markets.

This was followed by a panel on hedge fund strategies best suited for yen-based investors, featuring Takaaki Yoda of Pension Fund Management Consulting and Yuji Kage of The Blackstone Group Japan, and moderated by Taro Ogai of Towers Watson.

There was an afternoon case study on post-crisis risk management delivered by Tokihiko Shimizu of the Government Pension Investment Fund.

There was also a panel on alternative investments featuring Kazuo Nishimura of Nomura Private Equity Capital; Yasushi Ando of New Horizon Capital; Mikihide Katsumata of Mobile Internet Capital; professor Yuichiro Kawaguchi of Waseda University; Song In Kyu formerly of Korea Post; Brett McCarthy of Challenger; and Hideo Kondo of DIC Pension Fund.

The final two presentations of the day were centred on global bank regulatory change delivered by David Marshall of CreditSights, and balancing capital preservation and investment returns by Tomio Sumiyoshi of Greenwich Associates Japan.

To view a gallery of photographs from our event, please click here.