Japan Finance Minister’s Comments May Aim to Curb Rising Yields, BNP Paribas Says

A BNP Paribas strategist said Japan’s finance minister may have been trying to restrain interest-rate moves by urging pension funds to increase investment in domestic financial assets, rather than seeking an immediate practical effect. According to Jin10, Ryutaro Kimura, a senior fixed-income strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management’s Tokyo unit, said the remarks by Japan’s Finance Minister Satuki Katayama were partly intended to curb the trajectory of interest rates. Kimura said the decline in Japanese government bond yields today suggested that the earlier rise in rates had been too rapid.