JP Morgan Chase, the third largest US bank, will open its first branch office for Japanese asset management on 1 October. The office will be the first of a series with Osaka next on the list. The bank plans to double the assets it manages for Japanese individuals and open branches in the nation to grab a greater share of household wealth. The bank and is considering opening outlets in Nagoya and in Fukuoka, Keiichi Miki, president of JPMorgan Asset Management, said. It plans to double the size of assets it manages for Japanese retail customers to 4 trillion yen ($35 billion) by the end of 2009, from 2 trillion yen, he said. JPMorgan wants a bigger share of the $13 trillion in financial assets held by individuals in the world's second-largest economy by providing sales support to the branches of Japanese banks and brokerages that sell its investment trusts. Net assets of investment trusts doubled to Y82 trillion in Japan in the two years and six months to June 2007, according to the Investment Trusts Association in Tokyo. The bank, which has taken out advertisements at railway stations in Osaka, added 60 staff this year to its Japan asset management unit, taking the total to 320. It will organise seminars at the Osaka branch for sales staff of Japanese financial firms. About 100 financial institutions in Japan, such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Bank of Kyoto, sell the firm's products. Rising demand for mutual funds helped drive client assets at Nomura, Japan's biggest brokerage, above a record Y30 trillion in the first quarter, bolstering fees.