Banks raising guard against possible JGB crash

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For a long time, Japanese banks regarded JGBs as essentially zero-risk assets when computing capital ratios. Once saddled with mountains of bad loans, the lenders had shied away from smaller businesses -- risky borrowers -- and instead flocked to JGBs, which promised quick profits, and developed a dependency on those instruments.

Nowadays, the safe-haven myth surrounding JGBs is starting to look shaky. When JGBs were generating yields on the plus side, investors suffered no loss if they held on to the bonds to maturity. But now, under the Bank of Japan's negative interest rate policy, JGBs have transformed into loss-laden assets.