With GPIF’s $1.8 trillion-sized pot shifting direction, those old foreign contractor foremen—State Street and Lazard—are going to have to do without; has domestic asset management finally been waiting for spring?

Japan is planning to direct more countries’ pension fund capital into domestic assets, which may weaken the management fees of global asset managers such as State Street and Faton Insurance. The GPIF manages $1.8 trillion in assets; overseas holdings of about $93 billion are almost entirely managed by external institutions. By fiscal year 2025, the GPIF will be almost entirely dependent on 35 external institutions for overseas investment, with total management fees earned of approximately 21 billion yen. Industry insiders say that passive management by foreign capital is under pressure, and that domestic active management firms may benefit.