Meiji Yasuda Life to avoid superlong Japanese debt for year or more

Written by Adam Cadle

08/07/2025

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance intends to avoid actively investing in Japanese superlong-term government bonds for the next one to two years due to interest rates possibly rising and supply pressures building.

According to The Japan Times, the insurance company is considering hedged foreign bonds as an alternative investment.

"The Bank of Japan will continue to raise interest rates,” Kenichiro Kitamura, Meiji Yasuda's operating officer and general manager of investment planning and research department, said in an interview last week, while predicting that 30-year bond yields, currently at just below 3%, could rise to 3.2% to 3.3% by fiscal 2026.

"When the peak becomes apparent, it will be a good time to buy, but now is not the right time. Considering the risk of yen appreciation due to the narrowing US-Japan interest rate differential, hedged foreign bonds are a viable option.”

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