Carlyle Group Inc. is actively exploring around 300 Japanese businesses, indicating robust private equity activity in the country. Kazuhiro Yamada, co-head of Carlyle’s Japan buyout advisory team, mentioned that despite rising competition, there’s a shortage of general partners to handle potential deals. Carlyle plans to announce two or three more transactions in Japan this year, although staffing remains a challenge for managing these opportunities. The firm’s interest spans three sectors: general industries, consumer and healthcare, and technology, media, and telecommunications, with roughly 100 potential projects in each category. Japan’s private equity market was Asia’s largest in 2023, reaching about JPY5.9tr (USD38bn), a significant increase from the five-year average, boosted by management buyouts. Carlyle recently raised JPY430bn for its fifth Japan buyout fund.