UPDATE 1-Japan retail fund inflows up 30 pct in Jan - Lipper

* Value of initial "toushin" launches rises to 227 bln yen

* JP Morgan's railway fund drew 114 bln yen last week

* Investors expect railways to expand in emerging economies (Adds background)

TOKYO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Japanese retail investment trust fund inflows jumped almost 30 percent to $2.5 billion in January due to robust demand for a fund that invests in global railway companies, fund research data showed.

Japanese individuals hold about $15.6 trillion -- more than the gross domestic product of the United States -- parked mostly in low-yielding savings accounts, and they have been taking on more risk as the global economy picks up.

The value of initial launches of investment trust funds, also known as toushin, rose 28.9 percent to 226.5 billion yen ($2.5 billion) from the previous month, data from Thomson Reuters fund research company Lipper showed.

The trust fund investing in shares of global railway firms and shares related to railways, launched by J.P. Morgan Asset Management last week, drew 113.9 billion yen from retail investors on its first day.

The fund attracted strong demand on views that growth in emerging markets would lead to more urbanisation of those countries, increasing the need for new railways, said an official at Nomura Securities, the distributor of the fund.

The size of the trust fund was bigger than last year's top fund, which invests in global bonds and initially raked in 95.6 billion yen.

Japanese investors have been seeking higher returns by investing in a wide variety of funds, including those that invest in U.S. junk bonds or emerging markets, especially Brazil.

A total of 23 funds were launched in January and 59 funds are scheduled to be launched in February.

On Friday, Nomura Asset Management is scheduled to launch a toushin with a ceiling of 120 billion yen that invests in infrastructure-related shares in Brazil. ($1=90.42 yen) (Reporting by Michiko Iwasaki and Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Chris Gallagher)