BlackRock Japan Co. Ltd

BlackRock Japan Co. Ltd is an investment manager that was founded in 1985. The company was previously known as Merrill Lynch Mercury Asset Management Japan Ltd. and operated as one of the subsidiaries under Merrill Lynch Investment Manager, which in turn is one of the subsidiaries operating under the Merrill Lynch group of companies. The company was acquired by BlackRock and was renamed to its current BlackRock Japan Co. BlackRock Japan Co. is based out of Tokyo and currently operates as a subsidiary of BlackRock Advisors Holdings, which in turn operates as a subsidiary of BlackRock Financial Management, which in turn operates as a subsidiary company of BlackRock Holdco 2, which in turn operates as a subsidiary of BlackRock Inc., the uppermost parent company within the BlackRock group of companies. BlackRock Japan Co. is the eighth largest provider of cross border funds in Japan and reflects the company’s goal of becoming one of the top asset managing companies in Japan. The company seeks to expand in Japan, with Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock Inc., believing that “one of the great opportunities in the next few years for organic growth will be Japan.” Although the plan is to have the company grow largely through organic means, the company also seeks to find strategic deals in order to acquire the various business operations of related companies in order to facilitate its expansion. The company focuses its investments in the financial, services, and technology sectors, together making up over half of its total assets investment allocations, and also places its assets in the health care, energy, consumer non-cyclical, capital goods, basic materials, and utilities sectors, among others, listed in order of decreasing asset allocations. BlackRock Japan Co.’s largest holdings include Apple, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and iShares and has a total market value of over $25 billion as of the first quarter of 2015.