Corporate bond yields rise as market fears eventual end to BOJ buying

Tokyo

YIELDS are rising in Japan's tiny corporate bond market as traders pre-emptively brace for the Bank of Japan to stop being buyer of last resort, making this market a microcosm of wider fears over the end of Japan's four-year-long stimulus policy.

Five-year corporate bond yields have risen 10 basis points since mid-April as the 59.2 trillion yen (S$735 billion) corporate bond market fretted that the BOJ could soon reduce its purchases of these securities.

That's a sizeable move in yields in an economy where short-term policy rates are negative and where the central bank massively buys up securities, including government bonds …