U.K.-based insurance and asset management giant Legal & General won a large equity index mandate from the biggest government pension fund in the world earlier this year. Climate shareholders have pointed to Legal & General's better record voting on shareholder proposals. It has a record of supporting climate and lobbying disclosure proposals that ranks above most of the largest U.S.-based asset managers, with PIMCO an exception. Neither Legal & General nor the Japanese Government Pension Investment Fund pointed to ESG issues as a specific reason for the investment mandate, and there was no indication any other manager was being replaced. Of the $1 trillion-plus Japanese pension fund's six equity index managers, two are foreign companies — BlackRock and SSGA. The head of the Japanese pension fund was quoted last year saying that BlackRock is its biggest index manager.