Understand Japan is second highest holder of US treasury bills of US , after China. Now if Japan’s own External debt is increasing. Its like a circle. Keen to know the non residents who have lent to BoJ / Japan. I did found some details on BOJ site, however that spreadsheet does not have details of lenders to Japan. I am simply trying to link back to countries holding US Treasury bills (part of US external debt). Japan is second highest holder. Though Japan itself has huge external debt. SO what are the parties which have lent to Japan. I am told on yahoo answers.com that this information can be secret. I feel this information should have been in public domain. but do not seem to find it through Google.
To understand the issue, we have to look at the Japanese bond market more closely. The big holders are BOT, Japanese banks,Pension Fund(BlackRock Japan) and insurers. Institutional investors have also big share. Only 8.3% of Japanese bonds are held by foreigners. Japanese government issued also Japanese bonds in foreign currency or sovereign bonds. China is the biggest holder of this kind of bonds, or $230 billion. The Chinese really believe that China can short Japanese bonds. They have also made the same threat against the US.
It sounds to me like you are thinking, someone is lending money to Japan, and then Japan is lending that money to the US, so you want to know who’s the ORIGINAL lender to the US, via Japan.
If you’re thinking that, you’re on the wrong track. Doesn’t work that way.
The Japanese entities who buy US Treasury Bonds include investors, investment funds, corporations, banks, and the Japan Central Bank. Those are the Japanese holders of US debt.
Meanwhile, when we speak of “Japan” borrowing, we refer to the Japanese government. The Japanese government would not be lending to the US or be a significant holder of US Treasury bonds.
As for who specifically is buying Japanese government bonds, the specific information is not going to be available. No government is going to provide a list of individual investors who buy their bonds, that would be a flagrant violation of privacy. Japan might release some aggregated info (such as how the US gov’t issues monthly lists of foreign holdings by country) — I don’t know, but that’s up to the Japanese government what to release. Your opinion or mine doesn’t matter.