Japanese lenders Sumitomo Trust & Banking and Aozora Bank are planning to start joint operations in real estate, trust and asset management as early as this year, the Nikkei business daily reported. They will then work toward a broader alliance – possibly a merger. The alliance is not expected to include capital ties initially, but the two banks are likely to explore the possibility of merging operations under a joint stock holding company in the future. Sumitomo Trust is Japan's fifth-largest bank with assets of about JPY21 trillion ($190 billion). Aozora, which was listed by US private equity firm Cerberus last year, has assets of about JPY6.5 trillion. A merger would create a bank that still ranked fifth in Japan behind Resona Holdings in terms of assets but one that would be strong in specialised areas such as real estate and in targeting wealthy clients, the Nikkei said.