By Chikafumi Hodo and Takaya Yamaguchi
TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is moving to shake up oversight of the world's largest pension fund by giving it an expanded board with its first full-time members to steer a shift out of Japanese government bonds and into higher-yielding assets, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
In moves set to be announced next month, officials are considering a proposal to add two or three dedicated professional advisors to the committee that oversees investment at the $1.26 trillion (919.33 million pounds) Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF). They would play a key role in reforming a fund that's bigger than the economic output of Mexico with the power to influence markets in Japan and overseas.
The beefed-up committee could be given new, broader powers that would make it the final arbiter for asset allocation decisions, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the policy measures remain under discussion.
The existing investment committee comprises academics and economists, with a representative from Japan's trade union federation and one from the main business lobby. Its current role is restricted to advising the fund's president on where to place money.
The steps would give GPIF new direction as the fund shifts towards riskier investments like stocks and away from low-yielding Japanese government bonds, targeting the higher returns advocates say are needed to benefit future pension recipients in Japan's ageing population and to drive economic growth.
A spokesman for GPIF said the fund would not comment on matters under consideration as a matter of policy.
Earlier this month, Abe told a dinner hosted by the City of London that reform of GPIF was under way and that the fund was "making improvements". Last June, GPIF lowered its allocation target for domestic bonds and raised its target for stocks as part of a bid to achieve higher returns. In March, the fund was given a target of hitting a return of 1.7 percentage points over wage increases by an advisory panel to the health ministry. Taken together, GPIF has already seen more changes in the past year under Abe than it has since its establishment as a public fund in 2001.
As part of the changes, a person with knowledge of the process said GPIF's investment committee has formed a four-member working group headed by Sadayuki Horie, a senior researcher at Nomura Research Institute, that has been tasked with a review of its allocation targets over the next two to three months. Horie declined to comment.
(Corrects date GPIF was established in paragraph nine)
(Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo and Takaya Yamaguchi; Editing by Kevin Krolicki, Edmund Klamann and Kenneth Maxwell)