Japan Post Insurance to Shift to High-Yield Bonds, CEO Says

Japan Post Insurance Co. plans to sell holdings of lower-yielding government bonds and replace them with higher-yielding debt on expectations for further interest-rate hikes, according to its chief executive officer.

The life insurer expects the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates again as soon as April. It’s one of the nation’s biggest insurers and held ¥50.35 trillion ($320 billion) in securities at the end of last year. As Japanese bond yields jumped in the final quarter of last year, the firm’s valuation losses on domestic notes widened about 30% in the three months to ¥4.39 trillion.