Japan's long-term rate touched 2.930 percent yesterday. That is the highest since September 1996.
Today Tokyo gave back five sessions of gains in one. The Nikkei closed at 67,460.73, down 1,759.52 or 2.54 percent, the first fall in six sessions. Nikkei's own headline names the reason: Middle East concerns and rising rates.
Two names did roughly half of it. Advantest and Tokyo Electron together accounted for about 836 of those 1,759 points, per Zaikei's contribution ranking.
What was repriced is the multiple. What was not repriced is the commitment.
JX Advanced Metals (TSE: 5016) decided in June to spend up to 120.0 billion yen through fiscal 2030 on InP capacity. Fuji Electric (TSE: 6504) is not raising group capex at all, it is reallocating inside a smaller number, from 85.2 billion two years ago to 56.0 billion this year.
Both decisions were designed when the ten year cost of money in Japan started with a zero.
This is the part the tape does not price in a single session. A multiple can move 2.54 percent in a day. A wafer line and a switchgear plant transfer are three to five year schedules with a signature already on them.
So the question I am holding is narrow. Not whether Japanese suppliers are cheap after a down day. Whether any of them revises a multi-year capex plan because the discount rate moved, and which line it shows up in first.
I do not think it shows up in guidance. Guidance is annual. It shows up in the capex schedule, and that is disclosed once a quarter.
The September quarter closes in six weeks.
Korea sits on the other side of this. SK hynix (KRX: 000660) breaks ground in Indiana on 27 August. Samsung Electronics (KRX: 005930) is expanding Pyeongtaek. Those are dollar financed. The Japanese layer under them is yen financed, and the yen curve just moved thirty years.
Every capex schedule is somebody's bet that money stays cheap. That is a different risk from the one the tape traded today.
I could be wrong in an obvious way: rates have been rising in Japan all year and none of these plans have changed yet. If the September filings show the same capex lines, this is noise and I will say so.
Sources, in order:
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 17 August 2026, long term rate at thirty year high.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 18 August 2026, Tokyo close.
Zaikei Shimbun, 18 August 2026, Nikkei contribution ranking. Second hand.
JX Advanced Metals company release, 16 June 2026.
Fuji Electric FY2027 Q1 appendix.
The 836 of 1,759 share is my arithmetic. My read, not advice.
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