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Addition of a New Item to the "Regional Direct Investment Position (Inward Investment) (Ultimate Investor)" in the BOJ Time-Series Data Search

June 8, 2020
Bank of Japan
International Department

The Bank of Japan has added Japan to the country breakdown of the "Regional Direct Investment Position (Inward investment) (Ultimate investor),"1 which provides reference figures for the International Investment Position (IIP) of Japan (Calendar Year Data) in the BOJ Time-Series Data Search, starting with today's release of the revised year-end 2018 data. Data are classified by the country in which the ultimate investor holding ultimate control resides, that is, the ultimate investing country.2 Please see the List of Series Codes [XLSX 15KB] for an updated list of series names and series codes.

The data for Japan represent so-called round-tripping, that is, flows of funds where the investee and its ultimate investor reside in the same country. They involve the channeling abroad of funds by investors residing in Japan (ultimate investors) and the subsequent return of these funds to affiliates in Japan (investees) from their overseas parent companies in the form of direct investment.

Previously, the figures for Japan calculated on an ultimate investor basis were included in the total amount of inward direct investment but excluded from the figures for Asia in the classification by region. With the addition of Japan as a separate item, Japan's investment position is included in the total for Asia starting with year-end 2018 data.

Notes:

  1. The recording principle of these statistics differs from that of direct investment in Japan's IIP. For details, see the Recording Principles of Direct Investment.
  2. The ultimate investing country is decided as follows.
    1. (1) When the overseas parent company A of an affiliate in Japan does not have an investor that owns more than 50 percent of the voting power, the country in which A resides is the ultimate investing country.
    2. (2) When there is an investor B that owns more than 50 percent of the voting power of A but that itself is not majority-owned by another investor, the country in which B resides is the ultimate investing country.
    3. (3) When there is an investor C that owns more than 50 percent of the voting power of B, the country in which C resides is the ultimate investing country.

Inquiries

Balance of Payments Statistics Group, Balance of Payments Division, International Department

E-mail : boj-bop@boj.or.jp