Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Ken'ichiro Ueno said the Government
Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is still considering whether it needs to adjust
its asset allocation. He said GPIF judged in March that adjustments were
unnecessary but is continuing to study the issue and that the current investment
environment has not materially diverged from the assumptions underpinning GPIF's
portfolio. GPIF's policy target remains 25% in each of four asset classes:
Japanese domestic bonds, overseas bonds, Japanese equities and overseas
equities. Analysts say sharply higher Japanese government bond (JGB) yields in
recent months leave scope for GPIF to raise its domestic bond target. GPIF's
assets under management were about 318 tln yen (~$2.1 tln) at end-June; a 1
percentage-point allocation move would imply flows of more than 3 tln yen.
