Issuance in the samurai bond market has more than tripled over the past several years. Some observers have attributed this growth to a systematic underestimation of credit risk in the market. A detailed review of credit quality, ratings differences, and initial issue pricing in the samurai bond...

Sovereign ratings are gaining importance as more governments with greater default risk borrow in international bond markets. But while the ratings have proved useful to governments seeking market access, the difficulty of assessing sovereign risk has led to agency disagreements and public...

From the fall of 1997 to the spring of 1999, yield spreads in Japan's corporate bond market increased sharply. An analysis of this rapid rise suggests that Japanese investors in corporate bonds may be paying closer attention to the credit risk of individual issuers. Such a shift in investor...

From the fall of 1997 to the spring of 1999, yield spreads in Japan's corporate bond market increased sharply. An analysis of this rapid rise suggests that Japanese investors in corporate bonds may be paying closer attention to the credit risk of individual issuers. Such a shift in investor...