Bank of Japan to be top shareholder of Japan stocks

TOKYO — The Bank of Japan will overtake a state-run pension fund as the top shareholder in Tokyo-listed companies as early as 2020, Nikkei calculations show, as concerns rise regarding the central bank’s outsize role in the nation’s capital market. The BOJ held over 28 trillion yen ($250 billion) in exchange-traded funds as of the end of March — 4.7% of the total market capitalization of the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The bank’s ETF program “is eroding market discipline as companies are rewarded simply for being in major market indexes, rather than for having new business strategies or offering more dividends,” the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a country survey published Monday, citing a previous Nikkei report.

Source: asia.nikkei.com