Japan's first dormant-deposit local impact fund makes debut investments
What's the deal? The Kinki-Shikoku Social Impact FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, run by Kyoto-based Plus Social InvestmentDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, has made its first two investments since launching in 2025, backing Setouchi Village of Kagawa Prefecture and KominDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → of Osaka Prefecture. It is billed as Japan's first local impact fund built on the country's dormant deposit utilisation system.
What's the endgame? The fund targets "system change" — reshaping the underlying structures that create regional problems, not just growing individual businesses. It backs local ventures tackling depopulation, vacant homes, industrial decline, and labour shortages across the Kinki and Shikoku regions.
What are the deals? Setouchi Village turns vacant and idle properties into lodging and tourism ventures in Mitoyo, Kagawa. Komin, a town-development company in Daito, Osaka, runs public-private services such as social housing regeneration through its "morineki" project.
Why these two? The fund said it valued not the individual businesses but the wider regional change they could trigger. It assessed each on how it might shift the structure of local problems, broaden partnerships, and become a model replicable in other areas.
What comes next? Beyond capital, the fund provides management support, impact measurement and management (IMM), and network-building with regional financial institutions and local governments. It aims to create a circular flow of funding and a self-sustaining ecosystem where new local ventures keep emerging.
"Today's two investments are not a goal but the start of a new kind of investing to change regions' futures," said fund manager Masato Noike. He noted that many socially meaningful ventures struggle to secure capital through conventional finance.
Setouchi Village chief executive officer Hima Furuta compared the approach to how "AmazonDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → met long-tail needs with IT," saying the fund turns overlooked local assets into "value as investment targets." Komin chief executive officer Tomoko Irie said she hopes the public-private model behind morineki can be developed further and replicated elsewhere.
The signal: The debut deals test whether dormant deposits — long-idle bank funds redirected to public benefit — can seed a new asset class in Japanese local finance. If the "system change" model proves replicable, it points to a route for capital to reach regional ventures that traditional lenders overlook.
Read more: PR TIMES
Image credit: plus social investment co., ltd.
