The BoJ's share of Japanese government bonds falls to 41.2%
Victoria Shinder2 min readThe Bank of Japan's preliminary flow of funds for the second quarter of 2026, released on 17 September, carries a quiet but telling number: the central bank's share of Japanese government bonds and treasury bills. At the end of June it stood at 41.16%, down from 45.01% a year earlier and from a peak of 47.90% at the end of 2023. In amounts, the Bank still held 470 trillion yen of a total of 1,142 trillion, on a market value basis.
The table shows who is taking up the difference. Depository corporations, mainly banks, held 14.88% at the end of June, up from 12.51% a year earlier. Overseas investors held 13.12%, up slightly from 12.51%. Public pensions held 6.71%, up from 5.27%. Households, a small holder in Japan, nearly doubled their share over two years, from 1.15% in June 2024 to 1.92%. Insurance and pension funds continued to slip, to 16.29% from 17.51%.
The same release shows how households' wider balance sheet has moved. Their financial assets reached 2,519 trillion yen at the end of June, up 11.0% on a year earlier. Currency and deposits, still 44.9% of the total, grew only 0.5%; holdings of equity rose 47.0%, investment trusts 36.8% and debt securities 15.5%.
What it means
For a decade the Bank of Japan was the marginal buyer of government debt, and at the peak it owned nearly half of the market. Since it began reducing its purchases, the question has been who replaces it. These figures give the first clear answer in shares: banks and public pensions most of all, with foreign investors and households adding at the margin.
Two cautions apply. The figures are on a market value basis, so shares move with prices as well as with buying and selling, and the flow of funds is preliminary and revised. And with the call rate guideline raised to around 1.25% from 24 September, the price at which private buyers are willing to hold a larger share of the debt is now part of monetary policy's everyday arithmetic.