Japan’s No. 2 Pension Fund Aims to Double Alternative Assets

Japan’s second-biggest pension fund aims to double its holdings of alternative assets such as real estate and private equity to boost returns.

Pension Fund Association for Local Government Officials, known as PAL, is targeting alternative investments rising to near 5% of one of its main funds from 2.1% as of March, said Satoshi Uemura, an executive director at the organization, in an interview.

PAL oversaw about ¥35 trillion ($229 billion) of assets as of the end of March, making it second only to Government Pension Investment Fund in terms of the size of its asset holdings among Japanese retirement ...