Abenonomics led to fund loss

On Friday, the Japanese Government Pension Investment Fund publicized its 2015 financial year report, which showed a 3.8 percent loss of 5.3 trillion Japanese yen ($51.2 billion). Both the media and opposition political parties blamed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the loss because it was his idea to increase the percentage of the fund invested in the stock market.

In 2014, when Abe made the decision for the fund to double its investments in both the domestic and overseas equity markets and cut its investment in the securities market, there was wide opposition, yet he insisted on going ahead with his decision.

Japan's pension system did need changes because of the country's accelerated aging. An official survey in 2015 found that 26.7 percent of the Japanese population is more than 65 years old, the highest among all industrialized countries.