The Bank of Japan held 53.34% of outstanding Japanese government bonds at the end of March, a record high, after it stepped up buying to keep borrowing costs extremely low, data showed Tuesday.
The BOJ's bond holdings, excluding those with short-term maturities, came to ¥576.06 trillion ($4 trillion), while total government debt issued was at ¥1,079.96 trillion, according to the central bank.
The BOJ has held more than half of the government's debt for three straight quarters.
Under its yield curve control program, the BOJ sets short-term interest rates at minus 0.1% and guides 10-year Japanese government bond yields to around 0%. A 0.5% cap is placed on the benchmark yield.
Japanese government bond yields faced upward pressure in tandem with those of its overseas counterparts amid a global trend of monetary tightening to curb inflation, prompting the BOJ to ramp up bond purchases to keep the yields within a designated range.
Bond yields move inversely to prices.
The data also showed household assets gained 1.1% to ¥2,043 trillion, of which ¥1,107 trillion, or 54.2%, were held in cash and deposits.
