April 2007

Japan: Watanabe invites foreign investors to come and play

With gross public debt more than 170% of GDP and domestic investors increasingly diversifying overseas, the country is keen to attract foreign investors, even as it struggles to reduce government bond issuance and stave off roll-over risk. Hiroshi Watanabe, Japan’s vice-minister of finance for international affairs, speaks to Peter Lee about Japan’s funding policy and broader economic prospects.


MoF’s Sumi announces plans for 40-year JGBOVERSEAS DEBT INVESTOR relations efforts are still new and rather strange for Japan’s key financial policy makers. Hiroshi Watanabe is perhaps not a natural bond salesman. He smiles as he recalls pitching the Japanese recovery to fund managers in New York last year. "One member of the audience came up to me after my speech and said: ‘I totally agree with what you’re saying about the economy.’ I asked him what he was going to do. ‘I’m going to buy Japanese stocks.’" ...


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