Japan’s 10-year government bond yield hovered around 2.83% on Thursday as investors awaited the Bank of Japan’s upcoming policy announcement. The central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged, though policymakers may signal a possible rate hike in December amid persistent inflationary pressures.
Market participants are also closely tracking a series of key domestic data releases—covering unemployment, industrial production, retail sales, and Tokyo-area inflation—ahead of the BOJ decision.
At the same time, global asset managers are returning to Japan’s bond market, encouraged by signs of strengthening domestic demand and a more supportive policy backdrop that make its relatively high yields more attractive. This marks a shift from earlier in the year, when elevated yields alone were not enough to overcome concerns that the BOJ was tightening policy too slowly, that increased fiscal spending would boost the supply of government bonds, and that traditional domestic investors were largely staying on the sidelines.
