Japan’s Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare: GPIF is still considering asset allocation assessment, with no signals of adjustments for now

1. Japanese Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, Kenichiro Ueno, stated on Tuesday that Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is still continuously evaluating whether there is a need to adjust its asset allocation plan. He emphasized that GPIF had decided in March that there was no adjustment needed for the time being, but the fund is still conducting research on this matter in an appropriate manner. 2. Kenichiro Ueno pointed out that there is currently no significant deviation between the investment environment and GPIF’s expectations for its portfolio, suggesting there may be no intention to adjust the asset allocation in the short term. As of the end of June, GPIF managed assets totaling approximately 318 trillion yen (about 2.1 trillion US dollars). The fund’s asset allocation trends are closely watched by traders worldwide—in theory, every 1 percentage point adjustment in allocation could trigger the flow of more than 3 trillion yen.