Japanese investors dumped a record amount of French bonds in February, rattled by the rising popularity of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the upcoming presidential election, data from the Ministry of Finance showed Monday.

Japanese investors, who were major foreign buyers of French debt last year, sold ¥1.58 trillion of French bonds in February, surpassing a previous record of ¥1.25 trillion marked in June 2015.

"They are worried about the third surprise (after the U.K.'s Brexit referendum and U.S. Presidential election last year)," said Hideki Kishida, senior strategist at Nomura Securities.