Japan Press Weekly

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2020 July 15 - 21 [ECONOMY]

Largest shareholders in 85.3% of Nikkei 225 are GPIF and BOJ

A Japanese Communist Party study reveals that in 192 companies or 85.3% of the 225-issue of Nikkei Stock Average, the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) or the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is in effect their "largest shareholders".

The 225 companies include Japan's top firms such as Toyota Motor, Nippon Steel, MUFG Bank, and NTT.

It may be the case in China where state-owned enterprises are the mainstream, but there is no country other than Japan among capitalist counties where "public funds" are the "largest shareholders" of more than 85% of the country's leading companies.

The Abe government by using "public funds" has escalated measures to raise stock prices. In October of 2014, the ratio of GPIF's investment in corporate stocks doubled. In August of 2016, BOJ's annual purchase of exchange traded-funds (ETF) increased to six trillion yen. In March of this year, the pace again increased and is now 12 trillion yen.

As a result, in the domestic stock market, GPIF has stock investments of 34.8 trillion yen and BOJ holds 30.5 trillion yen.

In a calculation based on the current policy to boost the stock market, BOJ in two years will be the "sole largest shareholder" in 184 companies. How long do the Abe government and the BOJ intend to maintain such extraordinary stock-market measures with the use of "public funds"?