There is no easy way to translate the phrase “shoot yourself in the foot” into Japanese. That is a pity. Six months ago the Tokyo government privatised the Japan Post Bank — a financial group with more than Y200tn of assets — by selling Y12tn worth of shares to the public.
我们很难把“搬起石头砸自己的脚”译成日文。这令人遗憾。6个月前，日本政府将日本邮政银行(Japan Post Bank)私有化，将价值12万亿日元的股票出售给公众。这家金融集团拥有逾200万亿日元的资产。
The hope was that this would finally tempt ordinary investors — the so-called Mrs Watanabes of Japan — to embrace equity ownership, encouraging households to abandon cash and assume asset risk, boosting growth.
日本政府希望此举将最终吸引普通投资者（所谓的渡边太太(Mrs Watanabes)）投资股票，鼓励家家户户放弃现金，愿意承受资产风险，从而推动增长。
That, however, was before the Bank of Japan’s introduction in January of negative interest rates — which this week tipped yields on 10-year Japanese government bonds below zero. This will hit JPB harder than any other institution, since almost half its portfolio is held in such bonds. Unsurprisingly then, its share price plunged more than 20 per cent below the initial public offering level . Instead of teaching Mrs Watanabe the joys of equity risk, the JPB policy has left her burnt.
然而，那是日本央行(Bank of Japan)今年1月推出负利率之前的事情；负利率最近导致日本10年期政府债券收益率降至零以下。这对日本邮政银行的冲击将超过其他任何金融机构，因为该行投资组合中的几乎一半资产是此类债券。难怪该行股价大跌至低于首次公开发行(IPO)发行价逾20%的水平。日本政府对该银行的处置没有让“渡边太太”享受到股市风险的乐趣，反而烧伤了她。