For Japan, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe’s so-called three arrows strategy is certainly trying its best to jolt a country into inflation and growth. And while on the surface the latest move, to appoint Yasuhisa Shiozaki as health minister, would appear relatively minor, it carries the potential to join together various other government actions to connect an ecosystem of state institutions and private enterprise.

The health ministry runs the ¥126.6 trillion ($1.3 trillion) Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), which…