A man walks fits an electronic board showing the 225 Nikkei index in the Tokyo Stock Exchange along a street in Tokyo on April 7, 2025.
Kazuhiro nogi | AFP | Getty images
Japan saw foreign records in their long -term actions and bonds in April when investors fled from the US markets after the commercial save of President Donald Trump against friends and enemies equally.
Investors abroad bought 8.21 billion yen ($ 56.6 billion) in long -term shares and bonds in April, cordination to government data. Net tickets were the largest for a calendar month since Japan’s Ministry of Finance began collecting data in 1996, according to Morningstar.
“Trump’s tariff shocks probably changed the perspective of global investors on the economy of the United States and the performance of assets, which probably led to diversification far from the United States to other important markets, including Japan,” said Yujiro Goto, head of FX de Nomura.
Now, with the United States softening its commercial position and surprising agreements, even with China, confidence in the assets of the United States is being restored. So what does that disorder do for Japanese assets?
It was a fairly exceptional Mond, when it considers everything that has happened in the global macro economic environment.
Boulder Okamura
Neuberger Berman
The majority of the 8.21 billion entries and net tickets also occurred in the first week after April 2, according to the Ministry’s data.
After the announcement of Trump’s “reciprocal” rates, the 10 -year treasure performance in the United States increased the 30 basic points (April 3 to 9), while Japan’s 10 -year yield fell into 21 basic points (from April 2 to 8).
While worldwide shares were seen a mass sale in the fares after the sequelae or Trump, throughout the month, Japan Nikkei 225 increased approximately 1%, compared to the S&P 500that fell a little less than 1%.
Japanese assets generally consult a port, whose appeal increased as the narrative “Sell-United States” gained ground in April, said Rashmi Garg, senior portfolio manager of Al Dhabi Capital.
The entry was largely promoted by institutional investors instead of retail investors, said Nomura’s Goto. The pension funds and other asset administrators probably bought equipment aggressively, while the purchases of Japanese bonuses were large promoted by reserve managers, life insurers and also pension funds, according to Nomura.
“It was a fairly exceptional Mond, when you consider everything that has happened in the global macro economic environment,” Kei Okamura, manager of Portfolio of Japanese equities of Neuberger Berman, said.
“That obviously had an impact on the way global investors were thinking about the assignment of assets that the United States needed to diversify,” he told CNBC in a phone call.
The way ahead
Garg of Al Dhabi Capital expects to reduce the speed given the progress in the tariff conversations of the United States and China, and also as it is likely that agreements with other countries. In fact, Great Britain became the first country in INK an agreement with the United States last week.
While historical monthly tickets may not continue, market observers still have a positive perspective of Japanese assets and continue to see strong tickets.
The actions and flip flops of unprecedented policies of Trump have abolished the credibility and trust of the United States in their assets, and this could still lead to global fund managers investing less in US markets in favor of others, explained Vasu Menon, the OCBC managing team.
“Given this backdrop, the demand for Japanese assets can remain healthy even if it is not as strong as the level of April,” he said. Japan Onbing conversations with the United States with respect to tariffs have also increased some optism about reducing “reciprocal” rates of 24% in Japan, Menon said.
Japanese actions will also benefit from the corporate governance reforms of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which has prioritized shareholders, wrote Asset Management One International in note.
The corporate governance reforms of the TSE, which began in March 2023, the guarantees list the companies whose shares operate below a price ratio of one to “comply or explain.” The initiative aims to promote the appeal of Japan Inc. to foreign and national investors.
This reform program has led to probable record levels of shares of shares in Japan, which improves both the profits per share and the price of the shares, said Asset Management One International.
While the dollar has recovered a certain force after the sale of the sale of April, the potential to weaken even more and the Japanese currency to strengthen “makes sense” that investors analyze the Japanese shares Espanis Berman Rebouns, said Neuberamura.
“So this trend has legs. Japan will probably continue to see good flows,” Okamura said.
The capital investigation analyst of Morningstar, Michael Makdad, sees more net entries in Japanese equations than in the last decade in the middle of the best corporate governance.
That said, he does not see the same or simply entries in invoices of the Japanese Treasury in the short term, such as when the Bank of Japan was implementing negative interest rates such as the arbitration opportunity for some foreign investors who are no longer present now.
