Mizuho Financial Group is seeking to strengthen its wealth management business and take on industry leader Nomura Holdings as well-to-do Japanese invest more of their savings.

Through its brokerage unit, Japan’s third-largest bank is targeting individuals with assets exceeding ¥500 million ($3.4 million), Mizuho Securities President Yoshiro Hamamoto said in an interview. Over the next few years, the company will reassign sales staff and dispatch more employees to branches to provide face-to-face services for these high-net-worth customers, he said.

Japanese banks are building their wealth management operations to boost fee income and capitalize on a trend of households seeking to protect their assets from emerging inflation. The government is also encouraging citizens to invest more to ease strain on the retirement system as the population ages.

While Mizuho Securities’ investment banking and global markets divisions have been driving profits, its business serving individual clients has lagged behind. The firm’s assets under management — a key metric for the retail and business banking division — stood at about ¥98 trillion as of June, including from its stake in online broker Rakuten Securities — trailing Nomura’s ¥153 trillion.

"We’ll learn from Nomura where we can, but we also aim to catch up by using our unique approach,” Hamamoto said. The company has been recruiting talent from Nomura and studying its methods, while also leveraging Mizuho’s strengths across its banking, trust and securities divisions, he said.

The Tokyo-based firm is seeking to reform the retail operation by streamlining its approach to customers based on the size of their assets. Alongside strengthening the high-net-worth business, it will consider consolidating its branch network in the future, Hamamoto said. For clients with assets below ¥500 million, sales and consulting will be conducted in lower-cost channels such as call centers.

Nomura has taken a similar approach, overhauling its domestic retail business in recent years to focus on wealthier customers.

Japan has the fourth-highest number of millionaires in the world, with about 2.7 million, according to the 2025 UBS Global Wealth Report. Households in Japan have $15 trillion in financial assets, of which roughly half is in cash and deposits, according to the Bank of Japan.

Hamamoto also pledged to boost operations in China, citing its importance as the world’s second-largest capital market.

"We will firmly strengthen our presence in Asia, including China,” he said, indicating a strategy to build the business and secure profits in the medium to long term.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission has received an application by Mizuho to set up a securities unit on the mainland, where the firm is looking to focus on the bond business. Mizuho recently hired Daiwa Securities Group’s former China head.

"We want to capture commercial flows by integrating our strengths in banking and securities,” Hamamoto said.