Japan equity flow monitor (July 2026)

Research evidence excerpt

Japan equity flow monitor (July 2026)

funds into equity markets as a whole, and does not necessarily help to correct the

underweighting of Japanese equities. Excluding these funds, nonresident investors have

remained major net sellers since 2013 (Figure 2).

Individual investors: Sustained net fund inflows into Japanese equity investment

trusts despite moves to cash out ahead of major IPO

Net inflows into Japanese equity investment trusts (excluding ETFs) have continued, and

individual investors' appetite for Japanese equities has remained undimmed (Figure 3).

Individual investors were net sellers of cash equities and futures combined by ¥566.4bn in

the second week of June, when the TOPIX fell, which we attribute to the special factor of

the listing of SpaceX. The Nikkei reported on 13 June that applications for SpaceX stock

had exceeded ¥1trn, mainly from individual investors, and we think they may have sold

Japanese equities in order to be able to buy SpaceX. However, we have not verified this

report.

Household financial assets: Government aiming to increase weighting of household

risk assets to 40%

The Nikkei reported on 22 June that the government is thinking about raising the target

weighting of equities, investment trusts, and bonds in household financial assets to 40%

by 2040. This ratio stood at 25.2% at end-March 2026. Given that equities and investment

trusts alone account for 36% of household financial assets on an OECD average basis,

this target strikes us as achievable (Figure 4).

According to a report in the AsahiShimbun on 25 June, this target will be included in the

government's new financial strategy this summer. Given the aim of this strategy of

encouraging companies to invest in growth while at the same time creating an