Japan Press Weekly

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2020 April 8 - 14 [ECONOMY]

Opposition parties jointly submit bill to limit GPIF investment

Opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party, and a parliamentary group on April 10 jointly submitted to the House of Representatives a bill to revise the Act on the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) in order to restrict GPIF investment.

The GPIF in October 2014 raised the ratio of domestic and foreign stocks in relation to its total asset in pension reserves from 12% to 25%. The GPIF in the latest quarter alone lost more than 17 trillion yen due to falling stock prices.

The opposition-proposed bill is designed to reduce the ratio of domestic/foreign stock assets to no more than 20% of the total which was about the same rate as when the GPIF was established. Also, measures will be taken to protect people's pension assets by such means as obliging the GPIF to make public investment risk information.

After submitting the bill, JCP lawmaker Takahashi Chizuko at a press conference in the Diet building explained the reason for the JCP assent to the joint bill by saying, "Our party has long been saying that prudence is necessary in risky equity investment especially when the economy is sluggish. Now is the time to require the GPIF to be prudent."

Past related articles:
> Japan’s public pension fund records largest-ever loss of 15 trillion yen under Abenomics [February 2, 2019]
> Japan’s public pension fund posts record loss of 8 trillion yen [December 1, 2015]