Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will prod asset managers to improve their skills and strengthen governance, as he tries to nudge households to shift their savings to investments.

He will also lay out principles by summer 2024 defining the role of pension funds and insurers in making sure the funds they oversee bring appropriate returns to beneficiaries, he said in a speech as part of the “Japan Weeks” event aimed at promoting his country as a global financial center. Transparency will be required from company pension funds in particular, he said.

Kishida will set up a panel on asset management on Oct. 4, he said, which will draw up a policy plan by the end of the year. He added he wouldn’t hesitate to tackle necessary reforms.

The premier’s comments follow a speech he delivered in New York last month in which he laid out plans to entice more asset managers to set up in Japan through deregulation, in order to bolster competition in the industry.

Kishida Makes Fresh Bid to Lure Asset Managers to Japan

The premier also said he wanted to develop impact investment as an effective investment method. He said a planned ¥20 trillion in issuance of what were previously termed GX bonds would now be dubbed Climate Transition Bonds.

--With assistance from Takashi Umekawa.