Katayama Says Concerns About Japanese Bonds Are Misplaced

Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama called on market participants to calm down after an intense day of bond selling pushed up long-term government debt yields to the highest levels in decades with ripples reaching other global markets. Katayama says that since last October, Japan’s fiscal policy has consistently been responsible and sustainable, not expansionary, during an interview with Bloomberg’s Haslinda Amin on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (Japanese with English translation.)

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44 Comments

  1. 海外向けには財政を立て直すと言い、国内向けには突然財源の無い減税で選挙に勝とうとする
    さあどっちを信じる?

  2. 😂😂😂😂American slaves the Japanese 😂😂😂😂 keep on holding on to the dead horses the oppressive dollar paper 😂😂😂

  3. Don’t worry about Japan’s bond but worry about US bond market LOL. Denmark will be selling all of their US bond soon.

  4. “They are already their own biggest customer” — exactly

    This is the core contradiction.

    Japan is simultaneously:
    • the issuer,
    • the guarantor,
    • the regulator of buyers,
    • and the buyer of last resort.

    Once you reach that stage, words like “market absorption” lose meaning. What you have instead is:
    • Financial repression
    • Balance-sheet warehousing
    • Duration captivity

    Markets understand this perfectly. That’s why the selloff didn’t show up first in 10y—it showed up where:
    • banks can’t hold easily,
    • BOJ purchases are politically sensitive,
    • and pension math breaks.

    So when she reassures the market without addressing who, exactly, is the marginal buyer at 4%+ for 40 years, she’s dodging the only question that matters.

  5. I am a Japanese person who has emigrated overseas.
    It would be wise not to buy Japanese long-term government bonds.

    The Japanese government is deliberately creating inflation in order to reduce the real value of its enormous public debt.
    Repayment will be made in a diluted and debased currency.
    This is a betrayal of creditors.

    However, for Japan, there is no solution other than inflating away its debt.

  6. Describing the move as a “meltdown” says more about the interviewer than about the bond market.
    It’s the kind of language you hear from someone new to bond markets.
    あの程度の金利上昇をメルトダウンと呼ぶなんて素人丸出しだな。

  7. The Japanese government and Tepco also said the safety issue of Fukushima nuclear plant is not a concern , until 2011 proved everyone wrong.

  8. When Japan say it is OK, you should start worrying. Made in Japan cannot compete and the Japanese has zero natural resources except sushi rice. How are they going to pay them?

  9. 全て中華様に国債を買ってもらい、日本は中華圏に入り、傲慢で内政干渉の激しい英米を中華様の先兵として戦わなければならない。

  10. Well, Japanese economy is stable out of western economy theory. Western economist and strategist always warn about Japanese economy collapse, over 30 years. But in Japan, we are safe, clean, less crime, price is lowest among G20, and we are content about Japan is isolating from Western economy rules.

  11. Another general election in just a year and a half! Political chaos and fear for huge debt will lead to the JGBs yields soaring. A Weimar… NO no no nightmare please

  12. That chart shows weak daily correlation, not causality.
    FX is driven by USD shocks, risk sentiment, hedging flows, and positioning.
    The Yen isn’t just a “yield currency” anymore — it’s a balance-sheet buffer.
    Narrative ≠ evidence.

  13. さすがすぎる。国内も片山さんの発言に耳を傾ける人が増えてると思うから、報道機関の勘違いと一緒に勘違いしなくなる

  14. 片山は税金徴収しか知らず、経済を理解していない素人だ。
    日本銀行の植田総裁の邪魔をしておきながら、高市と片山の破綻した考えで失敗すれば植田総裁と国民の責任にするつもりだ。
    国民は怒っている。

  15. The "Lost Thirty Years" are, without question, primarily attributable to the ossified policy failures of the government and the "Kasumigaseki (equivalent to the Washington Belt-Way Circle)" bureaucracy, which preside over the nation’s economic, fiscal, and monetary spheres. Throughout these three decades, Japan’s growth has remained as stagnant as that of a developing nation ravaged by conflict.

    Under the shadow of an ageing society, the Ministry of Finance’s dogged commitment to austerity and tax increases has stifled essential investment and, instead, eroded the nation’s accumulated wealth. For too long, Japan’s politicians and bureaucrats have failed to project a positive narrative to the world (not only to the BBC); even the Ministry’s own digital presence serves as little more than a repository for inscrutable justifications of fiscal contraction.

    In truth, Japan’s current fiscal health, when measured against GDP, remains robust among the G7 nations. Under the stewardship of a new administration and its revitalised economic agenda, a national resurgence is not merely a hope, but a certainty.

  16. 国民のための積極財政でなく一部のための責任ない積極財政をやる人だという感じています