People familiar with the matter saidFreespinsGarda Capital Partners, an American hedge fund, hired Yoichi Takemura, managing director of JPMorgan Chase, to expand yen interest rate trading. After more than two decades of downturn, inflation has returned to Japan, creating opportunities for yen interest rate trading.

Takemura is expected to join Garda's Singapore office as a portfolio manager within a month, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter was not disclosed. The person familiar with the matter added that he would be one of the most senior employees the company has hired in Asia.

Garda, with more than $10 billion in assets under management, trades in the relative value of interest rates, commodities and equities in developed markets.

A spokesman for Garda declined to comment. Takemura could not be reached. A JPMorgan representative in Tokyo declined to comment.

More than a dozen employees have left companies such as Morgan Stanley and Citigroup in the past 18 months as the withdrawal of the BoJ's monetary stimulus has created the volatility needed to make money from deals, according to people familiar with the matter. Companies such as BlueCrest Capital Management and Capula Investment Management are actively recruiting.

With the addition of Takemura, there are more than six portfolio managers and associate portfolio managers who include yen interest rates in the trading range, compared with a historical average of two or three, people familiar with the matter added.