ROBOPRO Fund Tops 450 Billion Yen in Net Assets as AI-Allocated Funds Take Hold in JapanA · FULL TRANSLATION

The ROBOPRO fund, advised by FOLIO within the SBI group, has passed 450 billion yen in net assets. It is a publicly offered fund that allocates based on AI forecasting, and crossing this threshold says Japanese retail investors have reached a substantive level of comfort with handing judgement to an algorithm.

Note what the figure represents: not a day's trading volume but assets actually held, meaning investors keep their money in. Set against Japanese households' long-standing preference for cash and deposits, growth in such products indicates two things — low rates pushed money toward investment, and products that remove the need to pick securities are the easiest way past a household's psychological barrier.

Two points worth taking. If you are evaluating the product, understand what the AI actually does: typically it adjusts allocation weights across asset classes using market data, not predicts individual stock moves. It reduces the burden of timing; it does not guarantee returns. What deserves comparison is the total expense ratio and historical drawdown, since those decide whether you can hold on. If you watch the industry, Japanese asset managers are moving AI from marketing language into the structure of the product itself.

Watch performance during a sharp drawdown, whether fees fall as scale grows, and how regulators approach disclosure duties for AI-driven advice.