Bank of Japan ETF sales to bring in $6.3 bln annually, finmin Katayama says

The Bank of Japan’s faster sales of exchange-traded fund holdings will produce approximately 1 trillion yen ($6.33 billion) in extra annual revenue, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said Tuesday.

The finance minister’s statement follows Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s announcement last week about using revenue from the BOJ’s ETF sales to finance investment in sectors considered critical to Japan’s economic security. The government is looking for new revenue sources while limiting its dependence on debt issuance.

On October 30, the BOJ raised its annual ETF holdings sales to 860 billion yen from 330 billion yen on a book-value basis. A share of the net profit the central bank earns annually, including from ETF sales, goes to the state budget.