Since the 1990s, fund raising behavior of Japanese companies has significantly changed. We conducted empirical studies based on the companies listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Our findings can be summarized as follows. (i) The debt-equity ratio of companies with relatively...

The levels of long-term interest rates are determined by the daily movements in the government securities market. In order to understand the mechanics of how government securities are priced and how such prices would fluctuate, it is important to examine, for example, the arbitrage between cash,...

Enhancing market liquidity and efficiency in government bond markets is a central issue which needs to be addressed so as to ensure that the yield curve, which acts as the benchmark for yen interest rate instruments, is smoothly determined and reflects prevailing market prices. An efficient...

As short-term interest rates have become higher and more volatile since the end of the quantitative easing policy in March 2006, an interest rate swap, referred to as an OIS (Overnight Index Swap), which exchanges the uncollateralized overnight call rate over a specified period and a certain...

Since the financial instability during 1997-98 subsided, the Japanese corporate bond market has seen a substantial narrowing of credit spreads under the strong monetary easing by the Bank of Japan. With the narrowing of credit spreads, bond investors seem to have become cautious of a large...

Interest rates on Japanese government bonds (JGBs) fluctuated widely in 2003. The interest rate on 10-year JGBs gradually declined from the beginning of 2003, reaching the mid 0.4% range in June. But then, interest rates rose sharply (i) from late June to early July and (ii) from late August to...

Transactions in the yen money markets have become active since the end of the quantitative easing policy (QEP) in March 2006. In particular, transactions by foreign financial institutions have been increasing in the offshore markets including the FX swap and euroyen deposit markets, as well as...

The Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on bank lending practices at large Japanese banks (hereafter the 'loan survey') provides us with quantitative information on banks' views on the funding needs of firms and households as well as their own lending attitudes, which could not be grasped from...

Japan's financial structure has changed since the later half of the 1990s. The results of the Japanese "Big Bang" initiative have gradually manifested themselves in the domestic financial structure. The key factor here was the financial crisis of 1997- 1998. Throughout the 1990s, the household...

Repurchase Agreements (Repo) transactions are widely used as a risk-free means of raising or investing funds. Repo transactions can be categorized into the following two types: (i) general repos whose purpose is to borrow or lend funds, and (ii) special repos whose purpose is to borrow or lend...