For all practical purposes this is about and part of ‘official policy’ to weaken the yen if they do it.

That is, it’s not a reaction to govt policy, it is govt policy.

Japan Pension Funds Bonds Too Many on Abe Plan, Mitani Says

By Anna Kitanaka, Toshiro Hasegawa & Yumi Ikeda

Feb 4 (Bloomberg) — Japans public pension fund, the worlds biggest manager of retirement savings, is considering the first change to its asset balance as a new governments policies could erode the value of $747 billion in local bonds.

Managers of the Government Pension Investment Fund, which oversees about 108 trillion yen ($1.16 trillion) in assets, will begin talks in April about reducing its 67 percent target allocation to domestic bonds, President Takahiro Mitani said in a Feb. 1 interview in Tokyo. The fund may increase holdings in emerging market stocks and start buying alternative assets.

The GPIF, created in 2006, didnt alter the structure of its holdings during the worst global financial crisis in 80 years or in response to the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Bank of Japan (8301) have pledged to restore economic growth and spur inflation, which will mean higher interest rates, Mitani said.

If we think about the future and if interest rates go up, then 67 percent in bonds does look harsh, said Mitani, who was appointed in 2010 after serving as an executive director at the Bank of Japan. We will review this soon. We will begin discussions for this in April-to-May. Any changes to our portfolio could begin at the end of the next fiscal year.

GPIF, one of the biggest buyers of Japanese government bonds, held 69.3 trillion yen, or 64 percent of total assets, in domestic debt at the end of September, according to its latest quarterly financial statement. That compares with 12 trillion yen, or 11 percent, in Japanese stocks; 9.6 trillion yen, or 9 percent, in foreign bonds; and 12.6 trillion yen, or 12 percent, in overseas stocks.

Relative Yield

The fund, which took over management of government employee retirement savings when it was set up, returned to profit in the three months ended Dec. 31 from a 1.4 percent loss in the first six months of the fiscal year, Mitani said. He declined to be more specific. It needs to raise about 6.4 trillion yen this fiscal year through March 31 to meet payments.

The yield on Japans 10-year government bond climbed 3.5 basis points to 0.8 percent as of 4:35 p.m. in Tokyo today. By comparison, the projected dividend yield for the Topix Index (TPX), the countrys broadest measure of equity performance, is 2.05 percent. The Topix added 1.4 percent today.

Japans bonds handed investors a 1.8 percent return in 2012, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Index, compared with the 18 percent surge in the Topix.

Even as shares jumped amid optimism surrounding Abes stimulus plans, benchmark Japanese government bond yields have remained below their five-year average yield of 1.18 percent. Benchmark 10-year yields are the lowest in the world after Switzerland and are less than half the level in the U.S.

Rates Outlook

JGBs were how we made money over the past 10 years, Mitani said. The BOJ said that they are increasing buying bonds, but theyre also putting power into lowering interest rates. If the economy gets better, then long-term interest rates like a 10-year yield at less than 1 percent are unlikely.

The five-year JGB rate touched a record low 0.14 percent last month amid speculation the Bank of Japan will expand bond purchases as part of the monetary easing advocated by Abe.

The comments by Mitani show the pension manager needs to consider higher-risk, higher-yield assets to help fund retirements of the worlds oldest population. About 26 percent of the nation is older than 65, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Under Mitanis leadership, the GPIF began buying emerging- market assets in September 2011 and started purchasing shares in countries included in the MSCI Emerging Market Index (MXEF) last year. Mitani said in July 2012 that the fund was selling JGBs to pay for peoples entitlements and might consider alternative investments as it seeks better returns.

100 Years

We havent changed the core portfolio for a long time so it was thought that its about time to review this, Mitani said. The portfolio was based on a prerequisite of things such as long-term interest rates at 3 percent on average for the next 100 years. Whether this is good will be a possible point of discussion.

Holdings have been broadly unchanged since inception, when the fund was formulated with an outlook for consumer prices to rise 1 percent annually. Instead, the nations headline CPI has fallen an average 0.1 percent each month since the start of 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Bank of Japan last month doubled its inflation target to 2 percent, a level last seen in 1997, when a sales tax was increased, with no sustained price gains of that magnitude in two decades. Falling prices reduce incentives to borrow and invest in new business projects, erode tax receipts and increase the attractiveness of saving in cash rather than spending or putting money into stocks or bonds.

Topix Surge

GPIF is the biggest pension fund in the world by assets, followed by Norways government pension fund, according to the Towers Watson Global 300 survey in August.

Japans Topix Index surged 30 percent from Nov. 14, when elections were announced, through Feb. 1 on optimism the Liberal Democratic Party will lead the economy out of recession and end deflation. The yen weakened almost 14 percent against the dollar in that time, and touched its lowest level since May 2010 last week.

Even after 12 straight weekly advances, the longest streak in 40 years, the Topix is still 67 percent below its December 1989 record high.

Relative Value

The measure trades for 1.1 times the value of net assets. That compares with 2.3 times for the S&P 500, 1.6 times for the Hang Seng Index and 1.9 times for the MSCI World Index. A reading above one means investors are paying more for a company than the value of its net assets.

The yen dropped 11 percent last year versus the dollar, the most since 2005. A weaker yen increases the value of exports and typically raises import costs, boosting consumer prices.

Japanese stocks do not look expensive, Mitani said. Were still in the middle of a rising stocks, weakening yen trend. It will continue for a while.