Rakuten Group priced ¥400 billion ($2.5 billion) of yen-denominated bonds on Friday, including debt aimed at individual investors, in its largest-ever yen bond sale.
The 5.5-year bonds carry a 4.37% coupon and were priced at a spread of 200 basis points over the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond, with ¥360 billion sold to retail investors and ¥40 billion to institutional investors.
Following SoftBank Group’s ¥1 trillion retail bond sale, Rakuten’s offering highlights the growing role of the retail market as a funding source for large corporate borrowers. As individual investors shift money from deposits into higher-yielding assets, demand for corporate bonds is expanding.
“The recent string of large bond sales is evidence of rising interest and demand among individuals,” said Toshiyasu Ohashi, a visiting professor at Chiba University of Commerce’s Graduate School of Accounting and Finance. “Households are beginning to recognize the appeal of corporate bonds as inflation erodes the value of cash and deposits.”
Japanese companies have sold about ¥3.2 trillion of yen-denominated retail bonds so far in 2026, including Rakuten’s latest offering, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That is already more than 15% above last year’s record.
Ohashi also said the surge in demand could help break the “chicken-and-egg problem” that has long constrained the growth of Japan’s corporate bond market. Stronger demand could spur more retail bond issuance and help broaden Japan’s corporate bond market, he said.
Rakuten returned to a quarterly net profit in the April-June period for the first time in six years, though its mobile business remains in the red. It faces substantial bond redemptions from 2027 onward and has said it plans to meet its funding needs through a range of measures, including bond issuance in Japan and overseas and asset monetization.
According to Daiwa Securities, a lead manager, the institutional tranche was initially marketed at 170-180 basis points over government bonds but priced at 200 basis points amid heavy supply and widening spreads in the secondary market. Final demand was about 1.3 times the issue size.