Yields Rise as Igarashi Says Japan’s Debt at Limit

The biggest quarterly jump in Japanese government bond yields since 2008 may prompt policy makers to seek more foreign buyers for the nation’s debt.

“Japanese government debt is nearing its limit, and we need to find more places to sell government bonds, including overseas,” Vice Finance Minister Fumihiko Igarashi said in an interview in his office in Tokyo yesterday. Benchmark 10-year bond yields surged 18 basis points, or 0.18 percentage point, in the final three months of 2010, the most since the second quarter of 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.