INTERNATIONAL BOND ISSUANCE by Japanese borrowers
has been rather meagre in recent years, particularly in
non-yen currencies. In 2002, they raised just $8.3 billion in
dollar- and euro-denominated bonds.
Historically, the most frequent visitors have been
government-guaranteed borrowers that are permitted to issue a
certain amount of debt backed by the Japanese finance ministry.
These bonds have a zero risk weighting according to the capital
adequacy rules of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and
are thus popular with institutional investors.
So far this year, though, the only government-backed offerings
have been a ¥60 billion ($512 million) three-year offering from the
Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and a $500 million
five-year bond by Japan Highway Public Corporation.
Meanwhile, apart from Toyota, the only Japanese corporate to
have issued an international bond over the past year has been
telecom NTT DoCoMO, which raised $100 million of five-year debt via
Merrill Lynch in...
