Japan to offload over $500B in ETFs, vows to not let that crash global markets again

Japan is setting up one of the slowest exits ever attempted by a major central bank, with officials preparing to start selling more than $500 billion in ETFs next month.

Reportedly, the sales will stretch across decades and must be done with extreme care so global markets do not snap the way they did during past policy swings.

The Bank of Japan recorded ¥83 trillion in ETF market value at the end of September, while the book value sat at ¥37.1 trillion, and officials made it clear they will not dump these assets fast enough to shake markets at a time when traders everywhere are already on edge.

Japan locked in the plan during the September board meeting and agreed to sell ¥330 billion per year, a pace so slow it would take roughly 112 years to finish if nothing changes.

People familiar with the internal talks allegedly said the bank wants the flow of ETF sales to feel almost invisible, the same style it used when it spent about a decade unloading stocks bought from weak banks in the 2000s. Those sales wrapped up in July without a market accident, and the bank is trying to keep the same tone now.

Japan extends slow ETF sales while watching global risks

Officials said Japan’s stock rally in recent years pushed the market value of the ETF pile far above its book value, making the timing of sales even more sensitive. They said the bank will keep a steady monthly pace and stick to its plan of avoiding disruption.

They also said the process will stop if something hits the system the way the 2008 crisis did.

Japan confirmed that Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank won the auction to handle the selling program. The selection came earlier this month and signals the opening steps of a long unwind that must run even while markets across Asia react to everything from AI selloffs to weak data from China.

Traders in the region watched Wall Street fall Friday as investors pulled back from the AI trade. One portfolio manager said Friday had been a “value-outperforms-growth day” and that investors were “skittish,” “cautious,” and “hesitant” with anything tied to AI.

Markets across the region dropped Monday. South Korea’s Kospi fell 2.16% and the Kosdaq slid 1.17%. Memory-chip giant SK Hynix dropped more than 4%, and Samsung Electronics fell 3.3%.

Traders waited for China’s November numbers on retail sales, fixed asset investment, and industrial output, all of which shape how risk flows around the region.

Japan tracks sentiment, markets, and China data while ETF plan begins

Japan released its fourth-quarter Tankan results Monday. The index for big manufacturers rose to +15, the best level in four years. The last reading had been +14, and economists surveyed by Reuters expected the same number reached today.

The non-manufacturing index landed at +34. The Tankan survey is run by the Bank of Japan and measures how companies in the world’s fourth-largest economy feel about the business climate.

Broader Asia-Pacific indexes also dropped. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.66% on a day when the country was still processing its deadliest gun attack in more than 30 years, with at least 15 people killed Sunday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.79%, while the CSI 300 in mainland China stayed flat.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.3%, and the Topix slipped 0.27% as the weak China data came out. China reported retail sales rising 1.3% from a year earlier, far below the median forecast of 2.8% and slower than the 2.9% seen the previous month. Industrial output grew 4.8%, down from 4.9%, and short of the 5% economists expected.