Through the Program, the Bank purchases not only Japanese government bonds (JGBs) and T-Bills but also various types of risk assets, including CP, corporate bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and Japan real estate investment trusts (J-REITs). Such purchases of risk assets are unprecedented for a central bank (Chart 8).
The aim of the Program is to encourage a decline in longer-term market interest rates and a reduction in risk premiums. Since the introduction of the Program, longer-term market interest rates have been declining steadily (Chart 9). Government bond yields up to three years have declined to an extremely low level of 0.1 percent. The 5-year bond yields have come to nearly 0.2 percent.