HSBC is pulling out of banking for premier clients, those with more than ¥10 million (about $125,000) from this week, and will stop offering new investment products from 8 March, according to a statement from the group.

It will close all six Japanese branches as of 31 July. HSBC said it will gradually phase out services for existing clients in line with its contractual obligations and help them move to other financial institutions.

It is part of the bank’s continuing asset disposal and cost-cutting programme which will see it exit from businesses and regions where it lacks weight. Around 30,000 job cuts are expected from the global restructuring.

In December Switzerland’s second largest bank Credit Suisse agreed to buy HSBC’s private banking business valued at $2.7 billion, which caters for clients with more than ¥200 million worth of assets.

HSBC will continue to offer corporate-banking services in Japan and it remains an important market, it said. 

“Japan is a material financial and trading partner to the world. It is an important market for HSBC, whose global footprint closely matches the needs of Japanese corporations. We will invest to build our already successful global banking and markets and global asset management businesses here and help companies connect across our network," saidKaber Mclean, the newly-instated president and chief executive officer of Japan, in a statement.

The Japanese wealth management market has, traditionally, been a difficult one for non-domestic firms to penetrate, with only a relatively small number of banks, such as Credit Suisse, building a presence in the country. Measured in dollars, Japan has 1.7 million millionaires and is the single biggest market for high net worth individuals in the Asia-Pacific region, with 52.5 per cent of the region's millionaires and 38.2 per cent of its wealth as at the end of last year (source: BoA Merrill/CapGemini World Wealth Report).