Latest news with #KazutoUchida
Japan Times
04-07-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
GPIF logs $61 billion loss as weak dollar hits overseas assets
The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) has suffered a quarterly loss as a depreciating dollar dragged down the value of its overseas securities and domestic assets slumped. GPIF, one of the world's largest state pension funds, lost ¥8.815 trillion ($61.1 billion), or 3.4%, in the January-March period, with assets totaling ¥249.8 trillion at the end of the quarter, it said in Tokyo on Friday. On an annual basis, the fund had a 0.7% return. The quarterly loss came as the rumblings of a global trade war due to higher U.S. tariffs hurt equities and the outlook for interest-rate cuts dragged down the dollar against the yen. GPIF incurred losses on all four of its asset classes for the first time since July-September 2022. "The January-March investment performance was mainly due to a sharp decline in foreign stocks,' GPIF President Kazuto Uchida said at a news conference after the announcement of the results. "We are considering increasing the ratio of active management.' Overseas investments slumped 6% for stocks and 2% for bonds during the quarter. Japanese stocks dropped 3.5%, while domestic debt slid 2.2%. During the quarter, the MSCI All-Country World Index of global stocks fell 1.7% and the S&P 500 dropped 4.6% as the Topix lost 4.5%. Yields on 10-year Treasurys dropped more than 30 basis points, while benchmark Japanese bond yields climbed around 40 basis points. The dollar fell 4.6% against the yen.
Japan Times
25-03-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan names former MUFG economist to lead huge pension fund
Japan named Kazuto Uchida, a former Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group economist, as the head of the Government Pension Investment Fund. Bond market veteran Uchida will take over from current President Masataka Miyazono on April 1 for a five-year term to manage one of the world's largest pension funds with total assets of ¥260 trillion ($1.72 trillion), the health ministry said on Tuesday. Uchida is a graduate of Keio University. The appointment comes as investors speculate whether the giant fund may change its current portfolio, which allocates a quarter of funds evenly to four categories of assets — domestic stocks, foreign stocks, domestic bonds and foreign bonds. GPIF will maintain the portfolio composition for five more years from fiscal 2025, which starts in April, the Nikkei reported earlier this month. In its previous review in 2020, the fund increased the allocation to foreign bonds and cut domestic bonds amid the Bank of Japan's aggressive monetary easing. The GPIF was set up in 2006 to manage assets for the Japanese public pension system. It's been led by former officials from the country's main agricultural lender Norinchukin Bank for the past two terms.
