Something of an internet blindspot?? What is a Toshin Fund?

In my current role I became aware that our Japanese operation was involved with something called "toshin" funds, but there seemed to be little clarity about what they are. In particular I wanted to relate their structure to things I knew, eg SICAVS, Investment Trusts, OEIC's, etc and in doing so understand the parties involved and their responsibilities.

Now whether this counts as complacency or experience (or indeed both), but I started out confident that I could educate myself via the internet with a few google searches and, maybe, the use of my Linkedin network which is reported to number between 9 and 12 million depending on when you look at it.

Well I have to report that I have struggled and wonder if this is a blindspot for the internet.

When I look in wikipedia "toshin fund" returns nothing and "toshin" redirects me to Tekken characters.

So you might wonder if toshin funds exist?

I then looked at the website of the Japanese financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency. If I put the word "toshin" in their search engine returns a couple of documents in Japanese that appear to be data sheets and a reference to "head of Toshin branch of Chuo Securities". That is all!

So next to Google and a search for "toshin". This comes up with a number of references, but only a few are relevant

• In an FT article I find reference to "buyers of publicly offered investment trusts, or “Toshin” "
• On a site for foreign exchange jargon  in find "Toshin: Japanese investment trusts which invest in non-JPY denominated assets."
• A Forbes article reports "Japanese individuals invest in foreign government bonds and currencies in investment trust units known as Toshin funds."

So they exist and indeed the monies invested appear substantial, yet I find little reference material on the web - strange! I am not clear as I am hearing "investment trust" that I think I know, tending to be a closed ended, often quoted limited company, but then I see "units" which sounds more like mutual funds of maybe OIECS or SICAV.

So now I try my Linkedin network. I post a question under my status asking others to post it on and I put a question up in the "Answers" section.

I have now received two contacts; one from an indian describing himslef as a "human search engine" who found reference to a brokers report refering to Toshin Funds and most recently a guy in Scotland who advises me that "although termed investment trusts they are the equivelant of our open-ended mutual funds". Interestingly this reply, the only really useful one via Linkedin comes from a past employee of the company I am now working at!

So I am a little wiser, but not much. If I do get this all clear in my head then I suspect I will feel an obligation to write a wiki - my first.

I consider myself quite adept at internet searches and following breadcrumb trails, but I am surprised how barren this trail has been in a world where data (and information) is accumulating at an exponential rate.

I have one or two breadcrumbs to follow still, so my curiousity and tenacious nature are not sated yet.