Fallout from the coronavirus outbreak may finally lift the curse of the safe-haven yen for Japan, but policymakers fear fiscal laxity could lead to a freefall for the currency eventually, undermining efforts to cushion the economy from the pandemic. The yen, which investors typically snap ...
The Bank of Japan carried out an emergency market operation on Thursday, purchasing ¥1.3 trillion ($12 billion) of government bonds in a bid to curb rising long-term yields. The central bank said the operation was aimed at stabilizing the debt market given its recent volatility. The ...
Japanese asset manager awaits flood of money from regional banks
Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings Inc. anticipates a flood of money from yield-starved regional banks that need help reinvesting cash after redeeming government bonds. A year-old SBI unit that invests on behalf of local banks should see assets at least doubling to ¥300 billion ($2.7 ...
Finance Minister Taro Aso indicated a new openness to introducing 50-year government bonds, days after the country's central bank chief suggested such a move could be helpful. "This is one topic of our considerations," Aso told reporters Friday in Tokyo when asked about the potential ...
Bank of Japan's threat to global bonds fizzles as Japanese insurers stay put
For all the frenzy over the Bank of Japan's first policy tweak in almost two years, little seems to have changed for the nation's insurers. That's because the rise in long-end government bond yields seen after the central bank's July 31 decision has proved to ...
Bank of Japan's bid to taper by stealth made tougher by supercharged yen
The Bank of Japan is finding out just how hard it is to be stealthy — when everyone is looking right at you. The central bank looks set to end this fiscal year well behind on its target for government bond purchases. But having inadvertently ...
BOJ chief faces tougher second term as reality of monetary easing program sinks in
Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda will face more severe challenges from the central bank’s radical strategy for stoking 2 percent inflation and plans to unwind it.
With Kuroda staying at the BOJ, Japanese firms rush to issue long debt
Japanese companies are selling superlong bonds amid expectations that Haruhiko Kuroda's reappointment as central bank governor will prolong easy monetary policy, even as increases in overseas yields put pressure on domestic market rates to rise. Less than a week after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated ...
BOJ keeps snapping up debt, but pace of bond purchases slowing
The Bank of Japan continued its spending spree on government debt, although the pace of increase has slowed dramatically since the introduction of yield-curve control in September 2016. The central bank owned 39.5 percent of Japan's bonds and Treasury bills, up from 13.1 percent when ...
BOJ faces call to release handbrake, let longer yields rise
The Bank of Japan is caught in a quandary: to let bond yields rise or not. Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda wants to make longer-maturity debt more attractive by letting yields move higher, yet doing so will put pressure on his efforts to keep 10-year borrowing costs ...
Japan finance institutions face huge losses on government bonds if yields rise
Japanese financial institutions with huge government bond holdings face large appraisal losses if yields rise, a Finance Ministry estimate showed Monday. If yields of outstanding bonds climb 1 percent across the board, the value of outstanding government bonds would drop by an estimated ¥67 trillion, ...
The Bank of Japan shifts the focus of its monetary stimulus to controlling the shape of yields across different maturities.
