Japan investors buy French bonds, bet on 'Japanisation' of euro zone

TOKYO: Japanese investors have been buying most of the French government debt recently in a record surge spurred by expectations that Europe faces the kind of deflation and growth that Japan suffered for decades.

Since the European Central Bank (ECB) signalled in May it would take radical steps to ease monetary conditions, banks and other big investors in Japan have piled into French bonds, convinced from their own experience that the debt of a country where the central bank is battling deflation represents a winning bet, market participants say.