People walk across a pedestrian crossing, with advertising signs and billboards at Susukino intersection Sapporo city downtown shopping street colourful neon sign, Japan.

Photograph: Alamy

Jan 21st 2026|SINGAPORE|3 min read

Something is amiss with Japanese government bonds (JGBs). On January 20th the country’s longest-dated debt sold off sharply. The yield on 30-year bonds rose by a quarter of a percentage point, the most in a day since 1999. The 40-year yield pierced 4% for the first time. Though yields fell the next day, the trembling bond market will overshadow a meeting of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) on January 22nd and 23rd. As it should: investors have cottoned on to a clash between the central bank and Takaichi Sanae’s government.

Signage for Mizuho Bank Ltd., a unit of Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (MHFG), at one of the bank's branches in Tokyo, Japan.

Japan’s bond-market tremble reflects a fiscal-monetary clash