Ex-BoJ official says JGB safety “relative”

Nobusuke Tamaki delivered a speech at a recent conference in Tokyo organised by AsianInvestor in which he warned the audience of pension funds and investment professionals that Japanese government bonds’ “risk-free” image was a matter of perception. It’s one thing for economists overseas to warn of the dangers of overexposure to JGBs; quite another to hear it come from a former BoJ official. Tamaki joined the Bank of Japan in 1979, where he held a number of roles, including a stint re…