Japan’s ¥157trn (€1.18trn) Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) has hired Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation as its domestic real estate investment manager.

In April this year, GPIF issued a call to fund-of-fund managers for domestic and overseas real estate and infrastructure to apply for investment mandates.

GPIF said it will create separate domestic and global real estate mandates. The latter will be differentiated by North America, Europe and “others”.

The world’s largest pension fund has been planning to create a 5% allocation to alternative asset classes.

In October, the fund’s president said infrastructure is a key part of GPIF’s alternative asset strategy.

Norihiro Takahashi told a delegation of Australian government officials and fund managers, that GPIF was primarily interested in brownfield, core infrastructure.