Major Japanese investors switch to Russell/Nomura indexes (Russell.com)

Major Japanese Investors Switch to Russell/Nomura Indexes
Russell's Index Methodology Attracts Large Corporate Pension Funds

TACOMA, WA — October 6, 2005 — The Russell/Nomura Japanese equity indexes are gaining traction in Japan as more institutional investors aim for true market representation for their benchmarks.

The list of large corporate pension funds that switched in 2005 to the Russell/Nomura Prime Index for their passive investments includes Toyota Motor Pension Fund, Mazda Pension Fund, The Pension Fund of Bridgestone, and Nippon Victor Employees Pension Fund.

In addition, Toshiba Pension Fund, Pension Fund of NEC Corporation, and The Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan now use the Russell/Nomura style indexes as benchmarks for their active investments.

"Institutional investors in Japan seem to appreciate the fact that Russell's index methodology, which includes free-float adjustment, has been set for more than two decades," said Kelly Haughton, strategic director of Russell indexes at Russell Investment Group. "They can rely on Russell/Nomura indexes as objective and truly representative investment benchmarks."

The Russell/Nomura Prime Index represents all Japanese equity markets and measures the performance of Japan's top 1,000 stocks. The index, as well as the futures product based on it, offer investors the most comprehensive benchmark available for the Japanese market. It is designed for passive investment strategies and employs methodologies for managing the inclusion of stocks of especially low liquidity as well as controlling the frequent replacement caused by small fluctuations of market capitalization. As of last reconstitution, the index had an adjusted market capitalization range of approximately 8.95 trillion yen to 14.5 billion yen.

The Russell/Nomura Prime, produced by Russell and Nomura Securities Co., Ltd., is part of the full suite of Russell/Nomura Japan Equity Indexes. These indexes are value weighted and include only common stocks domiciled in Japan. All are subsets of the Russell/Nomura Total Market™ Index, which represents approximately 98% of Japan's equity market.

About Russell: Russell Investment Group, a global leader in multi-manager investing, provides investment products and services in more than 39 countries. Russell manages more than $136 billion in assets and advises clients worldwide representing more than $2.3 trillion. More than $2.5 trillion in assets are benchmarked to Russell's family of U.S. indexes Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual and is headquartered in Tacoma, Wash., with additional offices in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Sydney, Singapore, Auckland and Tokyo.

Russell Investment Group is a registered trade name of Frank Russell Company, a Washington, USA corporation, which operates through subsidiaries worldwide. Frank Russell Company is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Frank Russell Company is the owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to its indexes.

Russell's indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly

RC 4320