Inquiry about alternative investment know-how to the daily public pension GPIF
National Pension Service
Due to conservative asset management and low management returns
“We will increase exchange channels in the future” by the National Pension Service
![[Kyodo News]](https://wimg.mk.co.kr/news/cms/202609/17/news-p.v1.20260917.7c87fa4eaec14a8c90f642ddfaebd4ae_P1.png)
The Pension Reserve Management Management Independent Administrative Corporation (GPIF), which manages the Japanese public pension, recently asked the Korean National Pension Service for its know-how on alternative investments. GPIF, which has nearly 3,000 trillion won in operating assets, is a dinosaur that has a larger weight class than the national pension, but the operating return in the first half of this year is one-third of that of the national pension.
An official familiar with the National Pension Service said on the 17th, “The National Pension Service and the GPIF have never met in the past, and the GPIF recently asked us to share our know-how on alternative investment strategies.” The National Pension Service declined to respond immediately to the GPIF request, but plans to expand exchange channels in the future in order to strengthen global partnerships.
GPIF is an ultra-large pension fund with operating assets of 317 trillion yen (about 3,000 trillion won) as of the end of June. It is the second largest pension fund in the world after Norway’s pension fund (GPFG), and boasts 1.6 times the size of the national pension fund, which was worth 1,865 trillion won at the same time.
However, the GPIF is smaller than the National Pension Service in terms of the size of alternative investments. GPIF has been investing in alternative assets since 2013, but it is only 5.5 trillion yen (about 52 trillion won). This is one-fifth of the national pension fund, which invests 261 trillion won in alternative assets. Alternative assets account for 1.7% of the total portfolio and 14% of the national pension.
Although GPIF can contain up to 5% of its portfolio by regulation, it has been conservative, focusing on traditional assets. GPIF will divide its portfolio into four categories: domestic stocks, domestic bonds, overseas stocks, and overseas bonds, and manage them at a target ratio of 25 percent each. Alternative assets are not managed as separate asset groups and are considered one of four asset groups depending on the nature of the investment.
However, the recent rise in global bond rates and increased stock volatility have weakened the diversification effect of stock and bond portfolios. As a result, it is analyzed that GPIF is also raising interest in alternative assets like other global pension funds.
Meanwhile, the GPIF is considering increasing the proportion of domestic assets in its portfolio at the request of the Japanese government to ease the weak yen. Even if investment in alternative assets is expanded in the future, investment centered on the country is expected to be made. In July, GPIF invested 20 billion yen in its own private equity fund Advantage Partners for the first time ever.