Blackstone to Invest $15 Billion in Japan Over Three Years

Blackstone is looking to spend another $15 billion in the Japanese real estate market.

The New York-based asset manager plans to invest $15 billion in the country’s property market over a three-year period, Nikkei reported. The firm will use that money to acquire properties such as hotels, data centers, and logistics facilities, particularly from Japanese companies divesting their holdings as those local companies focus on streamlining their portfolios to improve capital efficiency.

“Supply and demand fundamentals are as strong in Tokyo and Osaka as anywhere in the world. We see greater rent growth,” Blackstone Real Estate global head Nadeem Meghji said, noting the company predicts “greater rent growth” in the coming years. Besides Tokyo and Osaka, the company is also looking at other cities across the country such as Fukuoka.

With the $15 billion investment, Blackstone will wade further into the Japanese property market and expand its presence in the East Asian nation. In 2024, the firm acquired the Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho mixed-use complex for approximately 400 billion yen ($2.5 billion). Other billion-dollar Japanese deals by Blackstone include a nearly $1.1 billion portfolio purchase of commercial and residential properties in Japan in late 2020, which followed the $2.7 billion acquisition of 220 rental properties in Tokyo and Osaka earlier that year. The firm spent $5.2 billion in the country that year alone.

Blackstone isn’t the only North American company to double down on Japan in the near future. Last summer, Brookfield Asset Management announced plans to invest more than $10 billion in Japan over the next five years, hoping to swoop in on relatively low property prices in the country. Brookfield first entered the Japanese market in 2015 when it opened an office in Tokyo and has since been increasingly investing in the nation. “We are now set up to be able to actionably deploy amounts of capital like we deploy in our major markets of the world,” Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt said.

— Chris Malone Méndez