Japan plans to issue bridge bonds to fund crisis management and growth earlier, with additional gains from Bank of Japan (BOJ) exchange-traded fund (ETF) sales designated for repayment while project choices remain unsettled.
At the Nov. 6 meeting of the Japan Growth Strategy Council, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the gains would support a new special account. The government says issuing bonds in advance would make public support more predictable and help attract private investment. Officials have left the account’s design and list of eligible projects to the budget process.
The council discussed a proposed strategy covering 17 fields and 62 major products and technologies. Semiconductors, drug discovery and physical AI were among the topics. The government did not identify them as recipients of funding from the new account.
On Oct. 30, the BOJ announced a higher annual sales pace, raising disposals from about ¥330 billion to about ¥860 billion at book value beginning Jan. 1, 2027. Using the market-to-book ratio for ETFs sold in January–September 2026, the BOJ puts the annual pace at about ¥2.46 trillion in market value. EconoTimes previously covered the revised sales pace and estimated sell-down timeline.
The ¥860 billion figure describes the BOJ’s annual sales pace, not a government spending allocation. Officials have not said how much in additional gains they expect to assign to the account or named projects that will receive funding.
At a constant faster pace, the BOJ estimates it would take about 43 years to sell its holdings, based on holdings at the end of September 2026. It estimates the sales would equal about 0.1% of stock-market trading value, compared with about 0.05% and 112 years under the previous pace. The government’s budget process will determine the account’s design and eligible projects; the faster BOJ sales pace begins Jan. 1, 2027.
