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| "We’ll have four broad categories of investable assets: foreign exchange reserves, public pension funds, reserves in the special account managed by the ministry of finance, and funds arising from government real estate" |
More on sovereign wealth funds
On a shelf in a third-floor office of the Sangiin-Kaikan, the house of councillors of the Japanese Diet (parliament), there sits a photograph. Five or six rows of men in dark suits stare dourly out of the picture, but in the centre of the foremost row there’s an exception: one Japanese man is resplendent in an electric-pink suit, smiling right at the camera.
Kotaro Tamura, senator of the Liberal Democrat Party and general secretary of the panel promoting the idea of a Japanese sovereign wealth fund, likes to stand out. A previous job overseeing a family business empire that included a tailoring company accounts for his taste in eye-catching suits but Tamura’s fondness for flair goes beyond mere attire.