Japan insurers shift to longer bonds | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News - NHKニュース

Japanese life insurers are shifting investments into longer-dated government bonds with higher returns as interest rates rise.

The portfolio adjustments come as prices on government bonds they hold are falling, leaving them with unrealized losses.

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance plans to sell some holdings and replace them mainly with 20-year and 30-year government bonds. It aims to invest more than 2 trillion yen, or about 12.7 billion dollars, during the current fiscal year.

Nippon Life Insurance made similar changes to about 6.4 billion dollars in government bonds in its holdings in the first half of the fiscal year.

Daiichi Life Insurance says it will reallocate roughly the same amount over the full fiscal year. The move is projected to lift its annual earnings by about 216 million dollars.

The insurers also need to adjust their investments to support policies with higher returns as the Bank of Japan pushes rates higher.