July 30, 2016
The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) on July 29 announced that approximately 5.31 trillion yen was lost on its investment in stocks in fiscal 2015.
The Abe government, which doubled the investment allocation for stocks with the aim to prop up the stock market, should be held responsible for the loss.
The GPIF normally publishes an investment report in early July, but it postponed the release for three weeks this year until after the House of Councilors election. The major opposition parties criticized this delay for concealing the huge loss from the public during the period of the election campaign.
Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira held a press conference in the Diet building on the same day and said, “The government bears serious responsibility for causing such a heavy loss on people’s pension assets.”
The government in October 2014 decided to reallocate the GPIF portfolio and increased the ratio of pension assets invested in the stock market from 24% to 50% in order to drive up stock prices.
Koike said, “The change in the portfolio obviously led to the additional loss.”
He stated that the JCP is ready to demand that the government be held accountable for the huge loss by saying, “The government’s economic policy diverted public pension assets to playing the stock market. As a result, the investment balance fell into the red due to the decrease in stock prices. The JCP in the Diet will continue to call on the government to take responsibility for the loss.”
Past related articles:
> Pensioners angry at huge loss in public pension fund [July 6, 2016]
> Abe’s policy to have public pension fund buy more stocks causes huge loss [July 2, 2016]
> Abe hints at cutting pension benefits due to stock market downturn [February 10 & 16, 2016]
The Abe government, which doubled the investment allocation for stocks with the aim to prop up the stock market, should be held responsible for the loss.
The GPIF normally publishes an investment report in early July, but it postponed the release for three weeks this year until after the House of Councilors election. The major opposition parties criticized this delay for concealing the huge loss from the public during the period of the election campaign.
Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira held a press conference in the Diet building on the same day and said, “The government bears serious responsibility for causing such a heavy loss on people’s pension assets.”
The government in October 2014 decided to reallocate the GPIF portfolio and increased the ratio of pension assets invested in the stock market from 24% to 50% in order to drive up stock prices.
Koike said, “The change in the portfolio obviously led to the additional loss.”
He stated that the JCP is ready to demand that the government be held accountable for the huge loss by saying, “The government’s economic policy diverted public pension assets to playing the stock market. As a result, the investment balance fell into the red due to the decrease in stock prices. The JCP in the Diet will continue to call on the government to take responsibility for the loss.”
Past related articles:
> Pensioners angry at huge loss in public pension fund [July 6, 2016]
> Abe’s policy to have public pension fund buy more stocks causes huge loss [July 2, 2016]
> Abe hints at cutting pension benefits due to stock market downturn [February 10 & 16, 2016]
