Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund Buys Gender Diversity
Posted on 04/19/2023
Japan’s US$ 1.4 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is investing US$ 3.7 billion to track the Morningstar Japan ex-REIT Gender Diversity Tilt Index. The Index is essentially an ESG play that brings gender diversity to the table. To build the fund, data from Equileap was used. Equileap is a source of information on gender diversity.
Companies in Japan with gender diversity are selected for inclusion. There are over 900 companies in the index. Toyota, Sony, and Mitsubishi Financial Group are a few of the recognizable names. There are 10 sectors covered. Toyota is the largest single company owned, with 4.11% of holdings. The index can’t go above 5% in any one name.
President Miyazono Masataka put out a statement explaining the move: “Based on our belief that the sustainable growth of investee companies and the whole market is crucial for the stable investment returns from assets under management, GPIF takes gender diversity, as one of the ESG factors, into consideration in its passive investment in domestic and foreign equities.”
Equileap scores companies on such factors as gender balance in leadership and the workforce as a whole, compensation and work-life balance, overall gender equality, and commitment, transparency, and accountability.
