Stock investment trust - Kabushiki Toushi Shintaku (English) stock investment trust

This is a classification that corresponds to public bond investment trusts in the Japanese investment trust classification. Whereas public bond investment trusts do not include stocks at all, stock investment trusts can include public bonds in addition to stocks. For example, if a decline in the stock market is expected in the future, it is permissible to take an extreme portfolio composition (the composition of the entire investment assets) such as investing 100% in public bonds.

Looking into the history of investment trusts in Japan, the Fujimoto Securities Investment Association was the first in 1937 (Showa 12), and the investment trust system was revived in 1951 after the Second World War with the promulgation and enforcement of the Securities Investment Trust Law (now the Law on Investment Trusts and Investment Corporations). However, all of these products were stock investment trusts. One of the important functions of investment trusts is to control risk by diversifying investments, and it was only natural that investment trusts in their infancy targeted stocks, which are considered to be the riskiest of the major securities. This is because, from the postwar economic recovery to the high growth period, stock investment trusts provided the household sector with an opportunity to invest in stocks among economic entities with little capital accumulation, and served as a receptacle for issuing companies to absorb their issued stocks. Stock investment trusts have continued to expand steadily since then, and although they have seen periods of decline due to the stock market, such as a long-term decline in net assets reflecting the fall in stock prices after the collapse of the bubble economy, they remain a core product for investment trusts.

Since the investment targets of stock investment trusts are widely accepted, they have a high degree of flexibility in product design and are offered in a wide variety of styles. For example, in terms of the difference in investment attitude toward return, they are classified into "active type" that actively pursues market excess returns, and "passive type (index type)" that aims for market average returns. From the regional perspective, there are high-risk, high-return investment styles such as "domestic stock type" and "international stock type", as well as "bull-bear type" that actively uses derivatives (financial derivative products). Since the amendment of the Investment Trust Law in 1998, the diversification of product composition has progressed further, and there has been a rapid increase in products such as monthly distribution funds that invest in domestic and foreign public bonds but are classified as stock investment trusts and therefore require a high degree of freedom in management and profit distribution, which has contributed to the increase in net assets of stock investment trusts since 2004.

[Gen Takahashi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

日本における投資信託分類で公社債投資信託に対応する区分形態。公社債投資信託が株式をいっさい組み入れないのに対して、株式投資信託では株式以外に公社債を組み入れることも可能であり、たとえば株式市場に先安が予想される場合に100％公社債で運用するような極端なポートフォリオ構成（運用資産全体の構成）で臨むことも許される。

　日本の投資信託の歴史をひもとくと、1937年（昭和12）の「藤本有価証券投資組合」を嚆矢(こうし)とし、第二次世界大戦後の1951年に証券投資信託法（現在の「投資信託及び投資法人に関する法律」）の公布・施行に伴い投資信託制度が復活したが、これらの商品形態はすべて株式投資信託であった。投資信託の重要な機能に分散投資によるリスク制御があるが、代表的な証券種類のなかでもっともリスクが高いとされる株式について、揺籃(ようらん)期の投資信託が対象としたことは自然な流れであったといえよう。それは、株式投資信託が、戦後経済復興から高度成長期にかけて、資本蓄積の乏しい各経済主体にあって家計部門には株式投資の機会を提供し、発行企業には発行株式消化の受け皿として機能したからである。株式投資信託はその後も順調な拡大基調を示し、バブル経済崩壊後の株価下落を映じて純資産額の長期減少を記すなど、株式相場の影響から不振な時期は認められるものの、投資信託の中心的な商品であり続けている。

　株式投資信託は、その運用対象が広く認められていることから商品設計の弾力性が高く、さまざまなスタイルの商品が提供されている。たとえば、リターン獲得への運用姿勢の相違でみると、積極的に市場超過リターンを追求する「アクティブ型」、市場平均並みのリターンを目ざす「パッシブ型（インデックス型）」などに分類される。また、地域という視点からは「国内株式型」や「国際株式型」、さらにはデリバティブ（金融派生商品）を積極的に活用した「ブル・ベア型」などのハイリスク・ハイリターンの運用スタイルがある。1998年（平成10）の投資信託法改正を受けて商品構成の多様化が一段と進んだことから、毎月分配型ファンドのように、内外の公社債を投資対象としながらも、分類上は株式投資信託に属することで運用や収益分配などの自由度の高さを求める商品が急増し、2004年（平成16）以降の株式投資信託の純資産増加に寄与している。

［高橋　元］

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