Foreign capital withdrawal in progress, Japanese stocks, bonds, and currency all hit hard.
The 10-year Japanese government bond yield has reached a record high in the past decade, with both major Japanese stock indices experiencing intraday declines of over 1%. The Japanese yen is approaching the 150 mark.
As foreign capital accelerates its withdrawal, Japan is once again witnessing a "triple kill" in stocks, bonds, and currency.
On the morning of September 28th, the yield on Japan's 10-year government bonds rose to 0.75% for the first time since 2013. The yield on 20-year Japanese bonds rose by 1.5 basis points to 1.475%, reaching the highest level since May 2014.
The Japanese yen is approaching the 150 mark. The yen briefly fell to 149.54 against the US dollar but later recovered.
By the midday close, the Nikkei 225 index fell by 1.17% to 31,813.01 points. The TOPIX index fell by 1.49% to 2,344.05 points.
With the support of the stock god Warren Buffett, the Japanese stock market has continued to rebound this year and reached a 33-year high in May. However, as expectations of interest rate hikes continue to rise, foreign capital has been fleeing, and last week saw a continuous record high in the selling of Japanese stocks.
According to the latest report released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance, global funds sold a record amount of Japanese stocks last week. In the week ending September 22nd, foreign investors sold a net 3.0253 trillion yen of Japanese stocks, nearly double the net selling of 1.5784 trillion yen in the previous week.
Ikuo Mitsui, a fund manager at Aizawa Securities Co., a Japanese securities firm, said, "Investors who have been buying Japanese stocks from the beginning are now taking profits due to concerns about rising interest rates." "From a global perspective, risk-weighted assets have a slight downward trend."
At the same time, Japanese domestic investors have remained indifferent to the Japanese stock market.
Data released by the Bank of Japan last month showed that Japanese households only invest an average of 11% of their savings in stocks, with 54% invested in cash and bank deposits. This figure is far behind the United States, where according to data from the Federal Reserve, American households invest 39% of their funds in the market, with only 13% in cash and bank deposits.
Last week, the Bank of Japan continued to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy. Although Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda downplayed speculation about an imminent interest rate hike at a subsequent press conference, the market is still betting that the Bank of Japan will end its negative interest rate policy as early as March. Kazuo Ueda stated that if there is a prospect of achieving the price and inflation targets, policy adjustments will be considered, but it is currently uncertain when policy adjustments may be made.
Regarding the exchange rate, according to media reports on Thursday, Japanese Finance Minister Toshimitsu Motegi stated that stable fluctuations in the exchange rate are important. He will closely monitor the foreign exchange trends with a sense of urgency and does not rule out the possibility of taking any measures to address excessive exchange rate fluctuations.