{"text":[[{"start":11.1,"text":"Japanese stocks surged almost 2 per cent and the yen rose from a multi-decade low after the country’s finance minister called on domestic pension funds and the public to shift more assets into domestic markets."}],[{"start":24.4,"text":"Traders in Tokyo described Satsuki Katayama’s comments on Friday as a form of “stealth intervention” in currency and bond markets."}],[{"start":33,"text":"Greater support from domestic investors would ease pressure on Japan’s currency and sovereign debt. The yen strengthened 0.6 per cent to ¥161.36, while yields on 10-year Japanese government bonds dropped 0.1 percentage points to 2.77 per cent."}],[{"start":52.3,"text":"Katayama said in a press conference that encouraging Japanese pension funds and households “to invest more in Japanese financial assets” was a policy measure that the administration wanted to pursue. She explicitly included the Government Pension Investment Fund, which manages a global portfolio of roughly $1.8tn."}],[{"start":71.55,"text":"The GPIF’s portfolio is equally weighted between foreign and domestic bonds and foreign and domestic equities, with each asset class receiving about 25 per cent by value. The fund made a shift from domestic bonds into overseas assets as part of a major reweighting in 2014."}],[{"start":89.15,"text":"The GPIF sets its strategic asset allocation framework every five years, with the most recent decision to hold the weightings taken this year and running through to 2030."}],[{"start":99.15,"text":"Katayama herself cautioned that changing the asset allocation policy of the GPIF was not something she could do alone and that further discussions across the government would be necessary."}],[{"start":109.9,"text":"The prospect of a sustained repatriation of Japanese assets led by pension funds has long been seen by analysts and traders as a missing ingredient for a full revival of Japan’s capital markets."}],[{"start":122.45,"text":"Abbas Keshvani, Asia macro strategy director at RBC Capital Markets, said a rotation by Japanese investors from foreign to domestic assets would be “the impulse the yen needs to strengthen”."}],[{"start":135.35,"text":"“[The] GPIF is the largest investor. When they start to move it influences smaller asset managers to follow suit,” he said. But he cautioned: “I think this kind of verbal announcement will be very shortlived if it is not followed through with actual asset allocation changes.”"}],[{"start":151.65,"text":"The Nikkei 225 index has climbed 73 per cent in the past 12 months and rallied a further 1.8 per cent on Friday with AI-related stocks following gains for US technology shares a day earlier, as well as getting a boost from Katayama’s comments."}],[{"start":169.4,"text":"Japanese borrowing costs have surged to their highest levels in 30 years as plans for aggressive government spending threaten to put further strain on the country’s high levels of debt."}],[{"start":179.15,"text":"Relatively loose monetary policy from the Bank of Japan, which has interest rates at 1 per cent, has added to the pressure on currency and bond markets."}],[{"start":187.8,"text":"Other strategists noted that the move by Katayama appeared to be a shift in approach to strengthen the yen instead of direct intervention in the foreign-exchange market."}],[{"start":196.45000000000002,"text":"Masahiko Loo, senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Investment Management, called it a “smart policy signal” when markets had increasingly questioned how much firepower the finance ministry had left for interventions."}],[{"start":209.75000000000003,"text":"“Encouraging domestic institutional capital to stay invested at home is a more durable and structural way to support the yen over time,” he said."}],[{"start":225.85000000000002,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1783662341_9967.mp3"}