Kanji Takenaka was named managing director and head of Japan to lead private markets investment firm Ardian’s new Tokyo office.
Mr. Takenaka comes to Ardian from HarbourVest Partners, where he served as a principal.
Tatsuya Kubo, managing director of HarbourVest’s Tokyo office, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. An assistant to Mr. Kubo confirmed Mr. Takenaka had served as a principal with HarbourVest in Tokyo, but declined to comment on whether he would be replaced in that role.
An Ardian news release said the Tokyo office is the firm’s 13th globally and third in Asia, following the opening of a Singapore office in 2005 and an office in Beijing in 2012.
The release said Ardian’s $66 billion in assets under management globally include $8.2 billion from 50 clients based in the Asia-Pacific region. More than a dozen of those clients, with a combined $2 billion, are based in Japan.
Dominique Senequier, Ardian’s president, noted in the release that the opening of the Tokyo offices comes as “more and more Japanese pension funds, companies and institutions are … looking to diversify their investments outside the domestic market.”