Japanese pension funds are scooping up a growing number of U S Treasury bonds, pushing them to the top of the list of foreign holders of U government debt

foreign countries held a total of 7.55 trillion U.S. dollars in U.S. treasury securities as of September 2021. Japan held 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars. In 2021, the United States had a total public national debt of 28.43 trillion U.S. dollars

https://www.statista.com/statistics/246420/major-foreign-holders-of-us-treasury-debt/

With the worlds largest public debts and a shrinking population, Japans pension funds have looked overseas for yield in recent years, and have been particularly attracted to U bonds, which pay higher returns than similarly rated debt

While a small portion of the total, the purchases are a boon to the U Treasury, which has been looking to raise cash to finance record budget deficits, and analysts said they could also help the Federal Reserve as it tries to unwind its bond portfolio

The Japanese have been buying U Treasuries for years and years, but it seems to be accelerating,a long-term trend that is going to continue

Japanese investors have been particularly attracted to the high yields on U Treasury bonds, which are more attractive than similar-rated debt

U Treasuries with a rating of Aaa yield around 4.5 percent, while Japanese bonds with a lower yield

That is a big difference, considering the Japanese governments debt-to-GDP ratio is the highest in the world at over 200 percent, while the United States has a relatively low debt-to-GDP ratio of around 80 percent

The Japanese government has also been buying U debt to help finance its own spending, as its domestic bond market has shrunk