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July 04, 2026
 

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BONDS

Despite fears higher oil prices and inflation would hurt the market, Japan’s 20-year bond auction was well-received on Tuesday due to the appeal of higher yields.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 17, 2026
Relief as Japan’s 20-year bond sale draws strong demand despite Gulf crisis
Higher yields attracted buyers, easing concerns that rising oil prices and inflation risks would damp appetite.
Japanese investors sold the largest amount of overseas bonds since 2024 last month.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 5, 2026
Japan’s investors sell most overseas bonds since 2024 last month
Net sales totaled ¥3.42 trillion in February, based on preliminary weekly figures from the Ministry of Finance released on Thursday, the largest monthly sale since October.
Japan Post Insurance CEO and President Kunio Tanigaki
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 4, 2026
Japan Post Insurance to shift to high-yield bonds, CEO says
The life insurer expects the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates again as soon as April.
Yoshitsugu Toba, head of the markets division at Joyo Bank, says he expects the next Bank of Japan rate hike will happen in April, followed by 25 basis-point increases roughly every six months.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 2, 2026
Short-term Japan bonds hold allure for regional bank managing ¥2.6 trillion
Joyo Bank is testing the country’s choppy bond market by investing in shorter-term notes to secure higher returns, while avoiding longer-dated securities.
Nippon Steel has raised ¥600 billion from an offering of bonds that can be converted into stock.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 26, 2026
Nippon Steel’s ¥600 billion deal jumpstarts Japan’s convertible bond market
Its record-breaking offering is highlighting the quest of Japanese companies for cheaper funding than increasingly expensive traditional debt.
Nippon Steel says it has raised ¥600 billion ($3.9 billion) from an upsize sale of convertible bonds to help repay loans taken out for its acquisition of United States Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 25, 2026
Nippon Steel raises ¥600 billion from bonds to repay U.S. Steel loans
Half of the bonds, which can be converted into stock, are set to mature in 2029, and the remainder, in 2031, according to a filing to the Finance Ministry.
Paris-headquartered Amundi is warming to Japanese government bonds for the first time in three decades, joining a growing number of foreign investors taking a long-term bullish view on Japan’s debt.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 24, 2026
Amundi goes long on Japanese debt for the first time in decades
The French asset manager, which started out 2026 slightly underweight on Japanese debt in its global portfolio, shifted last week into a slightly overweight position.
The country’s biggest insurers are sitting on swelling paper losses on their holdings of Japanese government bonds, which have slumped as the central bank raises interest rates.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 18, 2026
Accounting group seeks to ease rules on Japanese insurers’ bond losses
Bonds held by life insurers to match long-term policies would be treated as held to maturity if certain conditions are met, and would not be subject to impairment accounting.
The International Monetary Fund has issued a warning that a reduction of Japan's consumption tax would erode its fiscal space and add to fiscal risks.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 18, 2026
IMF urges Japan to avoid cutting sales tax amid higher expected borrowing costs
The fund described such a move as “an untargeted measure that would erode fiscal space and add to fiscal risks.”
Japan's 10-year government bonds (left) and U.S. 10-year government bonds are displayed outside a security firm in Tokyo in January. Jupiter Asset Management is betting that Japanese government bonds will rise.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 16, 2026
Jupiter’s Nash turns Japan bond convert after Takaichi win
For the first time ever, Jupiter Asset Management’s Mark Nash is placing a long-term, strategic bet that Japanese government bonds will rise.
The yen has strengthened decisively since the Liberal Democratic Party gained a supermajority in the Lower House.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 12, 2026
Yen strengthens decisively after strong showing by LDP boosts confidence
The Nikkei 225 stock average broke 58,000 and hit a new record on Thursday.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks at a news conference on Monday following a landslide victory of her Liberal Democratic Party in Sunday’s Lower House election.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 12, 2026
Japan investors remain wary Takaichi will spur another meltdown
Worries that she would add to Japan’s mountain of public debt prompted yields to spike last month to the highest levels in decades.
Rising fiscal spending and rate-hike expectations are driving Japanese companies toward convertible bonds.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 10, 2026
Japan bond blowout funnels corporate borrowers to convertibles
The benchmark 10-year bond yield hit 2.38% in January, the highest since 1999.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi discusses the consumption tax cut last month before the Feb. 8 election.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 9, 2026
Takaichi’s big victory might not be mandate for big spending
Fiscal hawks in the LDP and the bond market are expected to keep a lid on stimulus spending.
Analysts say an overwhelming Liberal Democratic Party victory may in the end be positive for bonds, as it would eliminate the need for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ‍to negotiate ⁠with opposition parties.
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Feb 7, 2026
Decisive win for Takaichi may be best scenario for bonds and yen
A big win would eliminate the need for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ‍to negotiate ⁠with opposition parties, who are touting even deeper tax cuts and broader fiscal spending.
Japan's foreign exchange fund special account, established to conduct currency market interventions, has often been referred to as an untapped resource.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 4, 2026
Japan’s forex fund special account eyed for tax cut funding
The foreign exchange fund special account is attracting attention as a possible source of funding for consumption tax reduction or elimination proposed by many parties.
A screen displays Japanese and U.S. 10-year government bonds outside a securities firm in Tokyo on Jan. 21.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 4, 2026
Japan’s bond market has a warning for America
Reality, however, has a way of catching up with theory eventually, and now it has for Japan, whose long-term bond yields are rising as the yen is depreciating.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds an international news conference in Budapest on Jan. 5.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2026
Hungary trade takes off as polls point to Orban’s election loss
The BUX stock index has jumped 16% in January, its best month in five years, with the forint trading near a two-year high against the euro.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi faces a crucial markets test in the final run-up to a snap election this weekend where she is hoping a decisive victory will give her a mandate for expansionary fiscal policy.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2026
Takaichi must face bond investors before winning over voters
The Finance Ministry will auction some ¥700 billion ($4.5 billion) of 30-year government bonds three days before polls open.
Expectations Japan's superlong bond yields will rise further as the government boosts spending have kept life insurers away from bond buying.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2026
Japan’s midsize insurers hold back from bond buys anticipating rebound
The bonds are usually major investment targets to match insurers’ long-term liabilities, but expectations yields will rise further amid government spending have slowed buying.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
Japan’s princesses face life-altering legal revisions
Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito, said in a 2022 news conference upon coming of age that she hopes to “spend a long time together” with her parents.
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
Iran war exposed, but hasn’t changed, Japan’s reliance on imported oil
Wind turbines generate energy from strong easterly winds on the Shonai Plain in Yamagata Prefecture. Despite the oil crisis caused by conflict near the Strait of Hormuz, and concerns instability in the region could continue to impact supply and the price of imports, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi does not seem to be drawing on the war as a pretext to hasten progress toward Japan's renewable goals.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.

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