TOKYO -- Public-private investment funds formed under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are awash in unused cash, with lavish budgets far outstripping actual demand, creating a struggle to find projects to back.
For example, one fund set up in January 2013 called A-FIVE -- or the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Fund Corporation for Innovation, Value-chain and Expansion Japan -- has 30 billion yen ($273 million) in public and 1.9 billion yen in private backing. Yet it has found only small-fry efforts to invest in. The 114 projects it had taken on through the end of July add up to just 5.9 billion yen.
