Japan’s GPIF Ends Losing Streak With 5.4% Return in Fiscal Q4

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund’s investment portfolio returned a robust 5.41% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022. The 10.3 trillion yen ($72 billion) quarterly investment gain ended a four-quarter losing streak and raised the pension giant’s total asset value to $1.416 trillion.

The performance ends a string of four consecutive losing quarters. During the first three quarters of fiscal 2022, the GPIF posted a 3.71% loss, and its value dropped by more than $55.2 billion.

The strong showing during the final quarter helped the GPIF end fiscal 2022, which ran from April 1, 2022, to March 31, in the black, with a 1.50% annual investment return.

Public equities fueled the Q4 return, led by foreign equities, which returned 8.19%, followed by domestic equities’ 7.03% return. Foreign bonds returned 4.33% during the quarter, while domestic bonds returned 2.12%.

Domestic equities led the portfolio for the fiscal year, returning 5.54%, followed by foreign equities, which returned 1.84%. Foreign bonds lost 0.12% during fiscal 2022, while domestic bonds ended the year down 1.74%.

The pension fund’s domestic equities portfolio was led by Toyota, Sony, Keyance, Mitsubishi, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Daiichi Sankyo, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Hitachi, Tokyo Electronics and Shin-Etsu Chemical.

The tech-heavy foreign equity portfolio was led by Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Alphabet, Tesla and Meta Platforms. Rounding out the top 10 holdings were UnitedHealth Group, Exxon Mobil and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

The asset allocation for the GPIF’s portfolio as of the end of March was 26.79% in domestic bonds, 24.49% in domestic equities, 24.39% in foreign bonds and 24.32% in foreign equities. The pension fund does not break out alternative assets, as they contain a mixture of asset classes; however, it said the asset class makes up 1.38% of its total investment portfolio. The GPIF has a 5% cap for alts.

As of the end of March, the asset value of the pension fund’s alternative investments was approximately $20.18 billion, comprised of approximately $10.31 billion in infrastructure investments, approximately $3.32 billion in private equity and approximately $6.54 billion worth of real estate.