Nonresident investors disposed of more securities than they acquired in September, with equities and short-term debt doing most of the damage. The Ministry of Finance's monthly release, dated October 8, 2026, puts the total net figure for inward portfolio investment at minus ¥6.998tn (-69,978 in the release's units of ¥100 million). The ministry's sign convention is that a plus is net acquisition and a minus is net disposition, so the minus means nonresidents sold on balance.
Equities sold, long-term debt bought
The release splits inward flows into three instrument categories. Nonresidents were net disposers of equity and investment fund shares by ¥6.29tn, with acquisitions of ¥141.9tn against disposals of ¥148.2tn. They were net buyers of long-term debt securities by ¥3.09tn. Short-term debt securities went the other way, with net disposals of ¥3.80tn.
| Measure | Net (¥100mn) | Net (compact) |
|---|---|---|
| Equity and investment fund shares | -62,935 | -¥6.29tn |
| Long-term debt securities | 30,907 | ¥3.09tn |
| Subtotal | -32,028 | -¥3.20tn |
| Short-term debt securities | -37,950 | -¥3.80tn |
| Total | -69,978 | -¥7.00tn |
Subtotal and total are different numbers
The release prints two headline lines for each direction. The subtotal covers equity and investment fund shares plus long-term debt; the total adds short-term debt. For nonresidents the subtotal is a net disposal of ¥3.20tn, and the total is nearly ¥7tn. A reader quoting the subtotal would miss more than half of the total, because short-term debt alone accounts for ¥3.80tn of net disposal. The ministry also warns that totals may not add because of rounding.
Residents were smaller net sellers abroad
On the outward side, covering acquisitions and disposals of foreign securities by residents, the subtotal net is minus ¥676.7bn and the total net is minus ¥219.7bn. Both are net disposals. The release's month-net-change lines, which subtract the inward net from the outward net, show ¥2.53tn on the subtotal and ¥6.78tn on the total.
An appendix breaks outward investment down by type of investor. Deposit-taking corporations other than the central bank were net disposers of ¥2.59tn across all instruments, while the "other sectors" group, which includes financial instruments firms, trust banks and investment trust management companies, was a net acquirer of ¥2.37tn.
Scope
The data are based on reports from designated major investors: banks, financial instruments firms, insurers, investment trust management companies and asset management companies designated by the finance minister under Article 21 of the ministerial ordinance on foreign exchange reporting. The release classifies flows by the residence of the security's issuer, not its currency of denomination. It is a measure of reported transactions by those institutions, not of all cross-border capital flows, and it does not by itself explain any move in the yen or in share prices.