Tokihiko Shimizu, a former welfare ministry bureaucrat who led the Government Pension Investment Fund's (GPIF) drive to diversify its allocation of money into alternative assets including private equity and property, has been named as head of the new Japan Post PE division.
Japan Post Bank which manages in the region of 205 trillion yen (US$1.68 trillion) in total AUM, is keen to further diversify its asset allocation capabilities into alternative assets including private equity and property.
The new initiative comes just weeks after JPB made its IPO debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on November 11 along with its holding group, Japan Post Holdings and Post Insurance Co. The IPO listing, Japan’s largest privatisation in three decades, raised approximately 1.4 trillion yen for the government.
With heavyweights such as Singapore’s GIC and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund also looking for real estate investment opportunities in Japan, the entry of Japan Post Bank into the fray could well push up prime commercial prices in core Tokyo wards.
