National commercial enterprise pension funds in Japan plan to invest in cryptocurrencies to diversify exchange rate risks
About 1,200 small and medium-sized enterprises have joined the Japan National Business Enterprise Pension Fund (located in Okayama City), which plans to start investing in cryptocurrencies in the fiscal year 2026. There have been some cases of Japanese companies investing in crypto assets, but it is still relatively rare for domestic pension funds to participate directly in crypto investments.The fund plans to allocate about 1% of its total assets to cryptocurrencies and will do so indirectly by investing in passive funds managed by large hedge funds that include various crypto assets. In terms of asset allocation, its structure for the fiscal year 2025 is: 80% yen, 15% US dollars, and 5% other currencies. In the fiscal year 2026, it plans to adjust to: a reduction of yen to 70%, an addition of 10% allocation to developed country currencies, and the remaining 5% allocated to emerging market currencies, gold, and crypto assets.The main purpose of this adjustment is to diversify exchange rate risk. The fund's executive director, Ai Kuchi, stated that the status of the US dollar as a global benchmark currency may be weakening, which is why they decided to reduce their holdings in US dollars. At the same time, he pointed out that the correlation between Bitcoin and the US dollar index is almost zero, making it a tool for hedging against currency depreciation risk and enhancing the portfolio's ability to withstand inflation.