A group of ruling party politicians advising Yasuo Fukuda, Japan’s prime minister, has called for a Y10,000bn ($93.7bn) sovereign wealth fund to be set up to improve returns to the country’s underperforming public pension fund.

A Liberal Democratic party faction has for some time been pushing for such a fund to manage the country’s nearly $1,000bn in foreign exchange reserves more aggressively. But it has faced opposition from the Ministry of Finance, which manages the reserves.