TOKYO (Bloomberg) - Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's largest brokerage, attracted 5.5 percent of a limit it set for a mutual fund investing in companies that benefit from spending by Chinese tourists.

The fund, which began operations yesterday, gathered about 4.4 billion yen ($56.7 million), Yuka Sasaki, the assistant manager of Nomura Asset Management Co.'s corporate planning department, wrote in an e-mail. Nomura Asset had set an 80 billion yen limit, according to a prospectus for the closed fund.

The company had marketed the fund between September 21 and September 29.

While the fund follows a relaxation on July 1 of Japanese rules for Chinese tourist visas, its start came amid soured relations between the nations.

Diplomatic tensions have arisen over the detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain whose vessel collided with two Japanese Coast Guard ships on September 7 near a chain of islands claimed by both countries.