Government Pension Investment Fund

Headquarters at Toranomon Hills
Native name	年金積立金管理運用独立行政法人
Company type	Independent Administrative Institution
Industry	Financial services
Founded	2006
Headquarters	Toranomon Hills, Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Masataka Miyazono (President)
AUM	¥196.6 trillion (2022) (US$1.5 trillion)[1]
Website	www.gpif.go.jp

Government Pension Investment Fund (年金積立金管理運用独立行政法人, Nenkin Tsumitate-kin Kanri Un'yō Dokuritsu-gyōsei-Hōjin), or GPIF, is an incorporated administrative agency (an independent administrative institution), established by the Japanese government. It is the largest pool of retirement savings in the world. Japan's GPIF is the largest public fund investor in Japan by assets and is a major proponent of the Stewardship Principles.^[2]

Profile

The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) states that it has been established on the following investment principles:

• The overarching goal should be achieve the investment returns required for the public pension system with minimal risks, solely for the benefit of pension recipients from a long-term perspective, thereby contributing to the stability of the system.
• The primary investment strategy should be diversification by asset class, region, and timeframe. While acknowledging fluctuations of market prices in the short term, we shall achieve investment returns in a more stable and efficient manner by taking advantage of our long-term investment horizon, whilst at the same time we shall secure sufficient liquidity to pay pension benefits.
• We formulate the policy asset mix, and manage and control risks at the levels of the overall asset portfolio, each asset class, and each asset manager. We employ both passive and active investments to benchmark returns (i.e. average market returns) set for each asset class, while seeking untapped profitable investment opportunities.
• By fulfilling our responsibilities, we shall continue to maximise medium-to long-term equity investment returns for the benefit of pension recipients.

Since April 2020, the GPIF invests in a mix of roughly 50% stocks and 50% bonds. This is subdivided into 25% domestic equities, 25% international equities, 25% domestic bonds, and 25% international bonds. The amount of each asset class is allowed to deviate up to 6–8 percentage points from its target allocation.^[3]

In August 2023 the GPIF reported a record quarterly profit of ¥18.98 trillion ($133.2 billion). This strong performance was attributed to high global stock performance and the weakness of the Japanese Yen which increased overseas returns. ^[4]

Collaboration

The GPIF has diversified investments with the following external asset management institutions: