December 2020

22Dec

Japan. GPIF Invests $12.5 Billion in Morningstar, MSCI ESG Benchmarks

The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) in Japan has started investing $12.5 billion into two foreign environmental, social, and governance (ESG) benchmarks from US index providers Morningstar and MSCI. Read also US. Saving at Work for Retirement: A Perk Coming to More States in 2021 The Japanese pension allocated roughly $9.7 billion to a general ESG-themed index from MSCI, as well as $2.9 billion to a gender diversity-themed index from Morningstar, the fund said Friday. Respectively, the two benchmarks...

December 22, 2020
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November 2020

20Nov

Bridging Japan’s Pension Savings and Returns Gap: A Focus on Younger Generations

In May 2020, the Japanese National Diet passed pension system reform legislation broadening the eligibility of part -time workers – mainly women and the elderly – for the public pension system and raising the maximum age to start receiving benefits to 75 from the current 70. Issues surrounding the “super-aging” society are among the most pressing public policy priorities in Japan, and this latest legislative change is just one of many attempts to reform the country’s pension system. Japanese...

November 20, 2020
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11Nov

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund Returns 3.05% in Q2

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) posted an investment return of 3.05% gross of fees during the second quarter of fiscal year 2020 to raise the asset value of the world’s largest pension fund to 167.536 trillion yen, or $1.62 trillion. The fund is now $440 billion larger than the world’s second largest pension fund, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), which currently has an asset value of roughly $1.18 trillion. To put that in perspective, the gap between...

November 11, 2020
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October 2020

30Oct

How are Japanese corporate funds adapting to global economic challenges

Since 2016, a Japanese publication for institutional investors, AL-IN, has periodical surveyed Japanese corporate pension funds to determine what products best serve them as they confront structural and market changes. The 2018 edition of the survey found pension funds preparing for a domestic economic downturn. Income gains were already slack and pension funds sought bond-related and low-liquidity assets to cover the shortfall. Since then, investment and financial markets have been defined by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s shift in monetary...

October 30, 2020
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19Oct

Japanese pension funds may hold key to Chinese JGB puzzle

China has ramped up purchases of low-yielding Japanese government bonds China stormed back into Japanese government bonds over the summer with ¥2.2tn ($21bn) in purchases between June and August — the biggest three-month spree since Japan’s Ministry of Finance began compiling data in 2005. The country has made several similar incursions to the JGB market since 2016 — the previous record high for purchases — snapping up Japan’s notoriously low-yielding debt on a grand scale and causing head-scratching over what...

October 19, 2020
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09Oct

Japan. An Unconventional Pension Fund Bets on Volatility’s Return

A small Japanese pension fund known for its aggressive bets on alternative investments is changing tack. The West Japan Machinery Pension Fund has an unconventional strategy with 90% of assets invested in the likes of loans and private equity. While still committed to alternatives and disavowing sovereign bonds, it has been pivoting away from low-liquidity assets such as PE and infrastructure debt, said chief investment officer Yoshisuke Kiguchi. “Instead, we have recently increased convertible bond arbitrage quite a lot...

October 9, 2020
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September 2020

22Sep

Beijing Taking Measures To Address China’s Upcoming Retirement Savings Deficit

China has been leveraging the domestic interest rate as an integral part of its monetary policy since the opening up of the bond market in 2019, increasingly allowing international investors to hold municipal bonds. Read also Canada. OSFI launches discussion on tech risks to pensions, other federal financial institutions Further into its liberalization of the market, China also allowed foreign capital to play a part in its funds market from earlier this year. Read also Switzerland. Credit Suisse pension...

September 22, 2020
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22Sep

Japan’s new PM could seek to improve GPIF oversight

Japan’s newly elected prime minister Yoshihide Suga may seek to form an independent board to oversee the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF). However, experts said that it may not happen at least until his re-election in October next year. Read also Japan proposal on contribution limits could hurt The debate about whether the GPIF should have an independent board instead of coming under the oversight of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) started several years ago, with many...

September 22, 2020
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21Sep

Japan proposal on contribution limits could hurt

Japan's regulators are moving to put "fairer" contribution limits for corporate defined contribution plans in place this year but analysts warn their proposed changes could just as easily shrink Japan's DC market as expand it. Along the way, some of Japan's biggest corporate plan sponsors could be forced to restructure the mix of DC and defined benefit retirement plans they offer to employees. At issue are current rules that mandate across-the-board reductions in DC contribution ceilings for companies that...

September 21, 2020
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August 2020

13Aug

Japanese head of world’s biggest pension fund looks beyond sovereign debt for future returns

The head of the world’s largest pension fund said he is looking beyond the safety of sovereign debt as an era of falling rates forces even the most conservative of investors to rethink playbooks. Masataka Miyazono, the president of Japan’s mammoth Government Pension Investment Fund with ¥162.1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) in assets, said the fund is looking at a range of foreign debt as it seeks steady returns in pandemic-riven markets after swinging from a record loss to...

August 13, 2020
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