Japan's government pension fund on Friday reported a largest-ever profit of 45.42 trillion yen ($283 billion) for the year through March 2024, driven by higher share prices and a weak yen that inflated the value of foreign assets.
The Government Pension Investment Fund, one of the world's largest institutional investors, remained in the black for the fourth straight year with a 22.67 percent return on its investments. It had a record 245.98 trillion yen in assets at the end of March.
The fund manages its pension reserves stably from a long-term perspective and aims to support the pension system of the rapidly aging nation.
It makes a point of allocating funds evenly to stocks and bonds, both Japanese and foreign, to minimize total investment risks.
All of GPIF's assets increased in value over the past fiscal year, except for Japanese bonds, which had a 1.14 trillion yen loss. Japanese bond yields rose but prices fell as the Bank of Japan moved toward reducing monetary stimulus by cutting its bond purchases.
GPIF's Japanese stock portfolio yielded a 19.39 trillion yen profit, while its foreign stock had a 19.30 trillion yen gain. Its foreign bond holdings produced a 7.87 trillion yen profit.
© KYODO
10 Comments
Yubaru
And just where do these profits go to? Oh right, the "government", who then uses the money to waste somewhere else!
Better to take these "profits" and pay down Japanese debt! If Japan started doing that, the world would certainly step up and take notice. Then watch Japans economy grow!
Seesaw7
Please give me back the total amount when I retire!
Agent_Neo
Japan has the largest debt in the world, and the more people who believe the country will collapse soon, the more of an excuse Japan has to reduce unnecessary government spending around the world.
However, this excuse doesn't really fly with other foreign governments.
Due to the declining birthrate, fewer people are paying into pensions, and the best use of the money would be to directly use it to pay pensions.
JeffLee
The fund has been a great success since its asset re-allocation. Japan's pension system is well funded. The GPIF was the world's biggest pool of retirement money in the world until very recently.
Mat
Pension scheme = ponzi scheme.
Illegal if I run one, perfectly fine when the government does it.
JeffLee
Do you have a printing press that prints a sovereign currency with which holders of that currency can meet all of their financial obligations, from tax bills, to mortgage payments, to investment to grocery bills? If not, then your comparison is ridiculous.
Pukey2
So how come the amount of pension retirees get is so small? You can hardly feed yourself, let alone pay for bills with the amount you get.
kohakuebisu
Divide by 125m and that's about 2 million yen per capita. Or just over 6 million yen per capita over 65. The over 65 population is still increasing, but according to projections should only go up another 5% or so from now. It will start falling in the 2040s, when the pensioners dieing off every year will outnumber new retirees.
I'm from the UK and also have a UK state pension. This will pay out more than my Japanese pension after starting 2-3 years later, but is a PAYG (pay as you go) scheme with zero million pounds in assets at the end of March.
Wandora
Evenly? I'm guessing 95% to US stocks. I certainly hope so.
gogogo
I will never get back what I put in, it's all a scam.