July 2024
29Jul

Japanese pension funds tiptoe into moonshot tech investments

Tokyo-based Beyond Next Ventures’ latest startup fund is 56% bigger than its predecessor, thanks to growing interest from the country’s traditionally risk-averse pension funds. Of the ¥25.7 billion ($160 million) the company raised for bets on cutting-edge tech and research startups, 20% came from trustees handling annuities and other long-term investments, according to the company. It’s one of the first signs that a trickle of money from the aging economy’s $$3.3 trillion’ worth of pension assets is going into the...

July 29, 2024
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25Jul

Japan to abolish gender-specific survivor’s pension benefits, introduce fixed-term payments

The Japanese welfare ministry is set to revise the survivor's welfare pension for men and women in their 20s to 50s without children, changing it to a five-year fixed-term benefit from the current gender-specific rule where the widow receives the benefit indefinitely if she is 30 or older, while the widower cannot receive payments unless he is 55 or older. The planned adjustment will be made over several decades to ensure that current recipients won't face a disadvantage. The ministry...

July 25, 2024
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19Jul

The Impacts of Raising the Public Pension Eligibility Age on the Lifestyles of Elderly People: Evidence from Japan

By Shinya Inukai With many countries facing rapid population aging, the sustainability of public pensions has become a pressing issue. I evaluate the impacts, including both employment and time allocation, of public pension reform on the lifestyles of the elderly. In Japan, all residents aged 20 or older are covered by the public pension, with eligibility determined mechanically based on age. I focus on the reform raising men's eligibility age from 60 to 61 in 2001 and estimate its impact...

July 19, 2024
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12Jul

The Impacts of Raising the Public Pension Eligibility Age on the Lifestyles of Elderly People: Evidence from Japan

By Shinya Inukai With many countries facing rapid population aging, the sustainability of public pensions has become a pressing issue. I evaluate the impacts, including both employment and time allocation, of public pension reform on the lifestyles of the elderly. In Japan, all residents aged 20 or older are covered by the public pension, with eligibility determined mechanically based on age. I focus on the reform raising men's eligibility age from 60 to 61 in 2001 and estimate its impact...

July 12, 2024
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05Jul

Japan’s GPIF Loses Status as World’s Biggest Pension Fund

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund was dethroned as the world’s biggest pool of retirement savings as a depreciating yen eroded the value of its assets in dollar terms. The fund posted a record gain for the three months through March, generating a 9.5% return, but the yen’s slump to a 38-year low against the greenback was deep enough to put the value of its assets below that of Norway’s wealth fund in dollar terms.     Government Pension Investment Fund, Tokyo, posted a...

July 5, 2024
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June 2024
17Jun

Japan’s Kishida says no plan for pension fund to buy BOJ’s ETF holdings

apanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Monday he has no plan for the government's pension fund to buy the central bank's holdings of exchange-traded funds (ETF). "The Bank of Japan holds ETFs as part of its monetary policy efforts to achieve its price target. It's up to the central bank to decide on how to load the holdings," Kishida told parliament. "The government has no plan to request or instruct GPIF to buy the central bank's ETF holdings," he said. Kishida...

June 17, 2024
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03Jun

Discussions on Japan pension reform must respond to anxiety about future

Deliberations on Japan's pension reform in 2025 are in full swing at a council of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The future vision of the country's public pensions that support people's lives in their old age is being called into question. The public pension system consists of a two-tier structure -- the national pension and employees' pension, with the latter covering company workers and others. The national pension is the basic portion that is common to all people,...

June 3, 2024
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May 2024
20May

Why half of Japan’s cities are at risk of disappearing in 100 years

With contributions from around 370 celebrities, intellectuals and cultural figures of the time, the April 1920 edition of the now defunct Nihon Oyobi Nihonjin (Japan and the Japanese) magazine ran a special feature on what the country would look like in 100 years. Sakio Tsurumi, then-director of the government's Forestry Bureau, predicted that the nation’s population would grow nearly five-fold to around 260 million by 2020, approximately double what it actually is now. Professor Riichiro Hoashi of Waseda University expected...

May 20, 2024
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March 2024
20Mar

World’s largest pension fund explores bitcoin as an investment

Japan's government pension fund on Tuesday said it is requesting information on "illiquidity assets" such as bitcoin, as part of research into potential new investments. The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) of Japan, the world's largest pension fund by assets under management on several different rankings, said it is looking for "basic information" on illiquid assets other than those in which it already invests. GPIF said it currently puts funds in domestic and foreign bonds and stocks, real estate, infrastructure and private equity....

March 20, 2024
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15Mar

Japan union group announces biggest wage hikes in 33 years, presaging shift at central bank

Japan's biggest companies agreed to raise wages by 5.28% for 2024, the heftiest pay hikes in 33 years, the country's largest union group said on Friday, reinforcing views that the county's central bank will soon shift away from a decade-long stimulus programme. The much-stronger-than-expected increase comes as the Bank of Japan looks close to ending eight years of negative interest rate policy. BOJ officials have stressed the timing of a pivot would depend on the outcome of this year's annual...

March 15, 2024
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