By Tomo Uetake

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s major life insurers plan to focus on swapping low-yield domestic bonds for higher-return issues in the second half of the fiscal year through March 2026, offering little hope for a rebound in demand for super-long debt.

Interviews with 10 domestic life insurers, with assets under management totalling nearly 300 trillion yen ($2 trillion) as of March, showed that larger insurers intend to centre their yen bond investments on portfolio rebalancing, with overall holdings expected to shrink.

Japanese government bond (JGB) yields began to surge in late May, particularly on the longer end of the curve, as diminishing demand among life insurers and other traditional buyers led to poor results at debt auctions.

The JGB market has also been undercut by a

See Full Page