Yoshitaka Todoroki joins StepStone after 10 years at Japan’s GPIF (Image: LInkedIn)
Three months after leaving his post as head of private markets at Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, the world’s largest pension manager, Yoshitaka Todoroki has joined StepStone Group as vice chairman for Japan, according to a company announcement.
The Nasdaq-listed private markets investment firm said on Thursday that Todoroki will focus on strategic initiatives in Japan and the broader Asia region, with his LinkedIn profile showing that he started his new role this month.
“Yoshitaka Todoroki brings tremendous experience and perspective from more than three decades investing across private markets, including helping to build and lead the private markets program for one of the world’s largest institutional investors. His firsthand perspective as an asset-owner and understanding of how investments across private asset classes fit within a broader portfolio will be highly valuable to our clients,” said StepStone chief executive Scott Hart.
StepStone was responsible for about $913 billion of total capital as of 30 June, according to its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2027. Hart said the firm was welcoming Todoroki “as we continue to grow our platform across Asia and beyond.”
Building GPIF’s Private Markets
Mingtiandi reported in July that Todoroki had left his post as executive director and head of the private market investment department after 10 years at GPIF.
StepStone chief executive Scott Hart (Image: Stepstone)
He said in a LinkedIn post on 1 July that the previous day had been his last working day, giving no reason and saying only that he would take a summer break and hoped to “come back to the market some time later this year.”
Todoroki described the task of building the programme as establishing an investment framework “from zero ground” in his farewell post.
Todoroki joined GPIF in 2016 as managing director of private market investment and head of private equity and infrastructure, according to his LinkedIn profile, with StepStone crediting him with having led the pension fund’s private market investment department including the expansion of that programme across private equity, infrastructure and real estate.
GPIF, which held JPY 293.6 trillion ($1.9 trillion) in assets at the end of its fiscal year on 31 March 2026, had JPY 5.21 trillion in alternative assets at that date, three months before Todoroki left, equal to 1.74 percent of the fund against a ceiling of 5 percent, according to GPIF.
Infrastructure accounted for JPY 2.46 trillion of the total, real estate for JPY 1.65 trillion and private equity for JPY 1.09 trillion.
Before joining GPIF, Todoroki spent nearly two years as head of the alternative investment group at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management, according to his LinkedIn profile, which shows him at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation for more than six years before that, including a role responsible for the bank’s on-balance-sheet investment in private equity funds.
He earlier spent less than a year as chief portfolio manager at MassMutual Life Insurance Japan and eight years at Sumitomo Trust and Banking, including a posting in London.
Asia Expansion
“I am pleased to join the firm and look forward to working with Scott and the broader team to support StepStone’s clients and continued growth in the region,” Todoroki said.
StepStone has previously worked with GPIF, which selected the firm in January 2018 as fund-of-funds manager for a global core infrastructure mandate, with Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management as gatekeeper.
StepStone’s website lists eight professionals on its Tokyo team, with Todoroki as sole vice chairman alongside managing director Yasunobu Kawahara, four directors and two vice presidents.
StepStone partner Vincent Hsu said in a sponsored interview published in April 2025 that Japan was the best-performing market in Asia by distributions to paid-in capital, based on StepStone’s proprietary benchmark data. Hsu and vice president Zhiyao Ma predicted in the interview that growth in the market would continue, with a more meaningful increase in co-investments and secondaries dealflow.
StepStone’s fee-earning assets under management stood at $153.6 billion at 30 June, up 21 percent from a year earlier, while its real estate fee-earning assets were $12.9 billion, down 3 percent, according to its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2027. StepStone reported a net loss attributable to the company of $115.8 million for the three months ended 30 June.
AloJapan.com