August 12, 2019

The amount of investment income that the Government Pension Investment Fund earned in FY2018 decreased by eight trillion yen compared with the previous year due to a loss in stock investments. This was revealed in the report on the public pension programs which the Welfare Ministry released on August 10.

The Abe administration, as a measure to boost stock prices, decided in FY2014 to drastically increase the allocation of investments by the GPIF for domestic and foreign stocks. The GPIF at the end of 2018 marked a loss of nearly 15 trillion yen associated with stock market declines. This illuminated the dangerous nature of the speculative investment of pension funds.

The Japanese Communist Party has been demanding that the government stop putting public pension funds into speculative investments and instead use the funds to maintain a decent level of pension benefits.

Past related articles:
> Koike: Gov’t should abolish ‘macroeconomic slide’ mechanism and provide adequate basic pension benefits [June 19, 2019]
> Japan’s public pension fund records largest-ever loss of 15 trillion yen under Abenomic [February 2, 2019]
> Abenomics actually manipulation of stock market [October 19, 2017]