Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan & Chase Co., the third- largest U.S. bank, plans to double assets it manages for Japanese individuals and open branches in the nation to grab a greater share of household wealth.

The bank will open its first branch office for Japanese asset management in Osaka on Oct. 1 and is considering opening outlets in Nagoya and in Fukuoka, Keiichi Miki, President of JPMorgan Asset Management Ltd., said in an interview in Tokyo today. It plans to double the size of assets it manages for Japanese retail customers to 4 trillion yen ($35 billion) by the end of 2009, from 2 trillion yen, he said.

JPMorgan wants a bigger share of the $13 trillion in financial assets held by individuals in the world's second- largest economy by providing sales support to the branches of Japanese banks and brokerages that sell its investment trusts. Net assets of investment trusts doubled to 82 trillion yen in Japan in the two years and six months to June 2007, according to the Investment Trusts Association in Tokyo.

``We want to get our foot in the door in the expanding asset management business,'' by opening branches and hiring people, Miki said. New York-based JPMorgan, which has taken out advertisements at railway stations in Osaka, added 60 staff this year to its Japan asset management unit, taking the total to 320.

JPMorgan will organize seminars at the Osaka branch for sales staff of Japanese financial firms, Miki said. About 100 financial institutions in Japan, such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Bank of Kyoto Ltd., sell the firm's products.

Rising Demand

Rising demand for mutual funds helped drive client assets at Nomura, Japan's biggest brokerage, above a record 30 trillion yen in the first quarter, bolstering fees.

``Success for an asset management company in Japan's mutual fund market means developing products that meet the demands of local banks, which have the skills to sell these funds,'' said Keisuke Moriyama, a Tokyo-based analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. Competition among asset managers is intensifying, he added.

The volume of investment trusts JPMorgan manages for Japanese individuals increased by more than 30 percent this year, Miki said. Funds that invest in emerging market stocks and global bonds are among the fastest-growing, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 27, 2007 03:46 EDT