Corporate bond issuance in Japan is poised to breach a record this year on growing funding demand for mergers and acquisitions as the economy continues to move away from three decades of deflation, Bloomberg News reported. The appetite for funds is outweighing concerns about the Middle East conflict after the U.S. and Iran failed to reach an agreement as the war enters its seventh week. Yen bond issuance in Japan has been unfazed, with sales rising 94% in March on a year earlier. That’s more than four times faster than all global corporate debt combined, according to compiled data.

The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday it expected the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates gradually, but at a ​slightly faster pace than projected six months ago, Reuters reported. After Japan's economy expanded ‌1.2% in 2025, growth is projected to slow to 0.7% in 2026 and 0.6% in 2027, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook report, roughly unchanged from its ​forecasts in October. The effect of the government's fiscal stimulus package and ​steps to curb fuel bills will offset headwinds from weaker overseas ⁠demand and the Middle East conflict, the report said.

A Beijing court has ordered the liquidation of Zhongzhi Enterprise Group and more than 300 related ​entities, in a major step towards resolving one ‌of China's biggest shadow banking collapses and managing systemic financial risks, Reuters reported. Creditors have until June 10 to file their claims with the ​administrator, Beijing Dacheng Law Offices, according to a ​court statement dated on Friday evening.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal has reaffirmed that insolvency proceedings initiated by homebuyers against realty firms must remain confined to the specific project where default has occurred and cannot extend to other projects of the corporate debtor, the Economic Times of India reported. The appellate tribunal highlighted that putting all other projects of the realty firms, which are unrelated to the default, is not in the interest of homebuyers and other stakeholders of other projects.

Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the Indian conglomerate behind the nation's biggest-ever private credit deal, is trying to delay paying a separate debt, underscoring mounting strains amid volatile markets, Bloomberg News reported. The company, controlled by billionaire Shapoor Mistry, has asked investors to let it repay 143 billion rupees ($1.5 billion) of zero-coupon notes at its unit Goswami Infratech Pvt. at the end of June instead of the current April 30 deadline. Goswami Infratech is looking to refinance its existing bond through a planned dollar bond sale which has a more complex structure.

Bank of Japan (BOJ) monetary policy could be an option to tame rising prices by boosting the yen, Japan’s trade minister said yesterday, as the central bank weighs raising interest rates this month to counter inflation spurred by the Iran war, Reuters reported. Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s top trade negotiator and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, was responding to an economist’s suggestion on a television talk show that a stronger yen would help offset higher crude-oil import costs.

Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said on Friday private credit does not ​pose a major issue domestically at present but noted ‌risks linked to the $2 trillion industry could be discussed at next week's G7 finance meeting, Reuters reported. "Japan's exposure to the private credit market is not ​particularly large. It's not that there is no investment ​at all, but we do not view this ⁠as a major issue domestically at this point," she said ​at a regular press conference.

Japan's financial regulator has been ‌conducting checks on private credit exposure at major financial institutions, a source told Reuters on Thursday, as concerns mount over strains in the $2 trillion global private credit industry. The ​Financial Services Agency (FSA) is examining lending and investment ties to ​private credit, the source familiar with the matter said, declining ⁠to be identified as the matter is private. The move was ​first reported by Kyodo News.