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.
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.
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.