Independent panel overhauling Japan public pension fund is expected to recommend changes that allow the funds to be invested more aggressively; report could be released as soon as Nov 20th - Japan press - Japan's $1.2T Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is the world's largest pool of pension money. It is currently overseen by Japan's health ministry which requires the funds be kept in a small range of very conservative investment options. - The panel of 7 financial experts that have been working on an overhaul of the GPIF's rules since July are expected to loosen strictures that will allow the funds to move into higher yield investments and away from heavy investments in very low yielding government bonds. Reforms at the GPIF are expected to lead other Japanese pension funds to follow suit which could unleash significant funds into new investments in global markets. - The panel is expected to recommend that the GPIF be allowed to control its own investment decision, taking it out from under the thumb of the conservative Health Ministry which heretofore had to approve all of its major investment decisions. Hand in hand with this, the panel is also expected to recommend the GPIF seek out less conservative investments than those mandated by the Health Ministry. The third main recommendation of the independent panel will be to push the GPIF to expand its benchmarks for passive stock investments from the Topix, which tracks only the 1,000 stocks in the TSE's first section. It will also maintain its early recommendation, issued in September, that the GPIF expand its bond-heavy portfolio into higher returning sectors like real estate, equity, and commodities. - The goal of the recommendations is to boost the returns on Japanese pension funds which have showed annual returns of little more than 3% over the last decade, half of those seen from US public pension funds. - The goal of the recommendations is to boost the returns on Japanese pension funds which have showed annual returns of little more than 3% over the last decade, half of those seen from US public pension funds.