Japan mutual fund industry tallies MMF lessons

The last thing Japan's struggling mutual fund industry needed was a scandal, but that's what it got. The trigger came as a surprise: the collapse of US energy trader Enron. But it struck at an area long known to be vulnerable by the industry and regulators: managed money funds (MMFs), unregulated portfolios widely believed by investors and many asset management companies to be as safe as bank deposits.But there's no such thing as a free lunch. Japanese investors, both retail and insti…