Japan Falls to 3rd in Net External Assets after Germany, China

Tokyo, May 26 (Jiji Press)–Japan had record-high net external assets for the seventh straight year at the end of 2025, but fell from second to third place in the world, a Finance Ministry report showed Tuesday. Japan’s net external assets, or the value of overseas assets owned by the Japanese government, companies and individuals minus their external debts, including foreign investments in Japan, grew 4.4 pct from a year before to 561,750.4 billion yen. Japan had held the world’s largest net external assets until the end of 2023, but was overtaken by Germany at the end of 2024 and then by China the following year. Based on exchange rates published by the International Monetary Fund, Germany’s net external assets at the end of 2025 came to 675,537.4 billion yen, followed by China’s 636,339.1 billion yen. The net external assets of Germany and China, which run trade surpluses, apparently grew faster than those of Japan, which has a trade deficit. Meanwhile, the United States had the largest net external debts, totaling 4,304,036.3 billion yen. Japan’s external assets increased 8.5 pct to 1,805,634.2 billion yen, up for 17 years in a row. The balance of direct investments, such as mergers and acquisitions of foreign firms by Japanese companies, grew 9.0 pct to 384,535 billion yen, and that of securities investments rose 10.0 pct to 768,653 billion yen. The country’s external debts expanded 10.5 pct to 1,243,883.8 billion yen, hitting a record high. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]