Tokyo Gas Co. and Asahi Breweries Ltd., Japan's biggest gas utility and second-largest brewer, are using free beer and pasta lunches to lure housewives into becoming investors.
Forty women gathered at Tokyo Gas's new test kitchen in the Ginza shopping district this week to listen to investment pitches followed by an Italian cooking class and four-course lunch served with Asahi Super Dry beer.
The party-cum-seminar is part of efforts to attract individual investors after sales led by institutional shareholders drove the Nikkei 225 stock average down by 40 percent so far this year. Individuals hold onto shares for the long term, compared with hedge funds, said Kazuo Yoshino, executive director of Tokyo Gas.