The Government Pension Investment Fund posted a record investment loss of 3.061 trillion yen in fiscal 2002, due to tumbling global stock markets and a higher yen, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Wednesday.
The loss brings cumulative losses, including those left by the pension fund's predecessor, Pension Welfare Service Public Corp., to 6.072 trillion yen, the ministry said.
This marks the second straight year in which the government-affiliated pension fund management body has posted an investment loss.
The loss consists mainly of a 2.045 trillion yen loss on domestic shares and a 1.468 trillion yen loss on foreign shares.
The pension fund reported a gain of 925.4 billion yen from investment in bonds for the fiscal year, due to lower interest rates both inside and outside Japan. It invests about 60 percent of its funds in bonds.
It managed 50.2 trillion yen in public pension funds in the government's special reserve account as of the end of the fiscal year.
As of the end of March, the total amount of public pension funds -- or public pension premiums minus benefit payments -- in the account stood at some 147 trillion yen.
The money in the account had long been channeled into the government's fiscal investment and loan program, known as the "zaito" program. But the government began managing part of the funds through the Government Pension Investment Fund in fiscal 2001.