VIDEO: Advantage Partners' Richard Folsom

"There is a competitive imperative for us to continue to have an advantage sourcing and helping companies. We need to demonstrate that we can, either through partnerships or direct capabilities support them in their strategy outside of Japan, whether that is supply chain sourcing or market development," he said.

The private equity firm also made four investments from its fourth fund outside of Japan. Two of these were Chinese companies that wanted the GP to deliver strategic relationships and technology sourcing in the country. While Advantage's current fund, a smaller bridge vehicle, is Japan-only and this is also likely to be the case for an expected larger Fund V, overseas investments remain a topic of interest.

"There is a discussion about raising a separate pool of capital to take advantage of these opportunities where companies in other parts of the region are coming to us because they see some strategic value-add for them in having a Japanese partner," Folsom said.

Speaking to AVCJ on the sidelines of the AVCJ Japan Forum in June 2014, Folsom noted that the last 18 months had been "pretty much a record year for us," with more capital returned to LPs than ever before. The firm completed seven exits and a dividend recap in 2013 and there were two more exits in the first half of 2014, with another two in the pipeline.

In terms of investments, Advantage was on course to complete four deals, matching the total from 2013.

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