The equities markets are in a light froth this morning over the possibility Health, Welfare and Labour Minister Shiozaki Yasuhisa will announce a change in the allocation of assets in the General Pension Investment Fund (GPIF):
Japan Mega-Pension to Shift to Stocks(Link)
Announcement for New Portfolio for Fund Expected Friday Afternoon
By Eleanor Warnock -- TOKYO — Japan's welfare minister is likely to approve a new portfolio for the country's ¥127 trillion ($1.2 trillion) pension on Friday, in a move that will have a significant impact on financial markets, according to people familiar with the matter...
"Significant impact" means shares have risen, will rise and will keep rising, giving the market indexes a feel-good pop lasting, with any luck, well into the new year.
Minister Shiozaki himself has shareholdings -- and not in a stock fund or a blind trust, either. More than any other member of the Cabinet. Shiozaki says he is a completely passive investor -- which is good, because trading while serving in the Cabinet is verboten. Furthermore he says he only inherited his shareholdings from his maternal grandfather and generally has little interest (kanshin) in stocks.
Still, would it not be interesting, just out of the purest of intellectual motives, to calculate exactly how much today's announcement can be construed as having profited Minister Shiozaki -- i.e., how much more money he has at the end the day than he did at the beginning?
OK, here is the list of Minister Shiozaki Yasuhisa's personal shareholdings as printed in the newspapers on October 18:
Company name / # of shares
Ehime Bank / 150
Taiheiyo Cement / 600
Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding / 3,000
Bridgestone / 1,000
Panasonic / 5,620
Teijin / 11,000
Takeda Pharmaceutical / 3,630
SONY / 1,100
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal / 19,747
NTT 102
Harima Chemicals Group / 1,000
Chubu Electric Power / 1,769
Tokyo Electric Power / 1,659
Denso / 1,100
Oji Holdings / 1,100
Fujitsu / 3,348
Asahi Glass / 2,205
ANA / 13,119
Miura / 2,000
Hitachi / 4,200
Kashima / 5,347
Mitsukoshi-Isetan / 2,268
JX Holdings / 1,500
Shonan Belmare (the soccer club) / 5
C-Net / 4
The answer is: ________________?
Later - Yow! Mr. Shiozaki gotta a little help from his friends! (Link)
A very happy camper he must be.
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