Foreign investors buy Japanese stocks for eighth week on AI rally

Foreign investors bought Japanese stocks for the eighth straight week through May 23, as oil prices eased and AI-related shares rallied on robust demand outlook.

Foreigners invested a net 1.08 trillion yen ($6.77 billion) in Japanese stocks in the week ended May 23, a near 14% rise from 948.4 billion yen of net purchases the prior week, data from the Ministry of Finance showed on Thursday.

The tech sector attracted investments as Nvidia forecast blockbuster demand for its flagship AI chips last week.

AI investor SoftBank Group surged 17.62% last week, while chip designer Socionext rallied 12.26%.

Foreigners have so far pumped nearly 11.7 trillion yen into Japanese stocks this year, compared with roughly 742.1 billion yen of net purchase in the same period last year.

Japanese long-term bonds saw a net purchase of 1.35 trillion yen after outflows of 1.03 trillion in the prior week, as a bond selloff eased and higher yields attracted investors.

Foreigners, however, divested 2.22 trillion yen of short-term instruments, the most since March 28.

Elsewhere, Japanese investors withdrew a net 358.7 billion yen from foreign equities, marking their third weekly net sale in four.

They, however, invested a marginal 10.3 billion yen in long-term foreign bonds, extending buying to a fourth straight week.

($1 = 159.5300 yen)

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 12:42 AM.