After taking over the helm of the world¡¯s biggest pension fund in 2015, Hiromichi Mizuno helped chart a course that not only made sustainable investing big in Japan, but also raised the strategy¡¯s global profile.

The Government Pension Investment Fund¡¯s former chief investment officer sidestepped public bemusement and criticism at home, as he sought to turn GPIF into a fund that ¡ª as one Harvard Business Review article put it ¡ª tried to ¡°change the world¡± through its approach to environmental, social and governance investing.

But at a time when the pandemic has accelerated the global push toward ESG themes, the ?178 trillion fund seems to be mostly treading water.