Public Offering Bonds and Joint Local Government Bond
- Public Offering local bonds are local bonds that are issued by soliciting purchases from a wide range of investors.
As of fiscal year 2025, the following 61 organizations have issued nationwide publicly offered local bonds
(including organizations planning to issue them):
The following 61 Local Governments issuers nationwide public offering LGB as of FY2025
- Hokkaido
- Iwate
- Miyagi
- Akita
- Fukushima
- Ibaraki
- Tochigi
- Gunma
- Saitama
- Chiba
- Tokyo
- Kanagawa
- Niigata
- Toyama
- Fukui
- Yamanashi
- Nagano
- Gifu
- Shizuoka
- Aichi
- Mie
- Shiga
- Kyoto
- Osaka
- Hyogo
- Nara
- Wakayama
- Tottori
- Shimane
- Okayama
- Hiroshima
- Tokushima
- Kochi
- Fukuoka
- Saga
- Nagasaki
- Kumamoto
- Oita
- Miyazaki
- Kagoshima
- Sapporo
- Sendai
- Saitama (city)
- Chiba (city)
- Yokohama
- Kawasaki
- Sagamihara
- Niigata(city)
- Shizuoka(city)
- Hamamatsu
- Nagoya
- Kyoto (city)
- Osaka (city)
- Sakai
- Kobe
- Okayama(ctiy)
- Hiroshima (city)
- Kita Kyushu
- Fukuoka (city)
- Kumamoto (city)
Of the above, the Local Governments that offer jointly issued Local Government bonds are the 37 underlined ones.
- National publicly offered bonds are usually coupon bearing with maturities of 5 years and 10 years. The 5-year notes have been issued since July 2000. Recently, more maturities have been offered, including 15-year, 20-year, and 30-year superlong bonds.
- Issuance terms for national publicly offered bonds used to be standardized, but some are now decided individually based on negotiations with the underwriting syndicate. Examples include Tokyo metropolitan government bonds since FY2002, Yokohama city bonds since FY2004, and Kanagawa prefecture and Nagoya city bonds since April 2006. Other Local Governments offering bonds were asked by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in a 14 August 2006 memo to consider setting issuance terms independently starting in September 2006.
- Local Government with jointly negotiated issuance terms have been offered since April 2003. To increase the size of their offerings and thereby effectively and reliably raise financing, the 27 Local Governments that offer Local Government nationally began joint issuances in accordance with Article 5-7 of the Local Finance Act. The local governmet that offer jointly issued Local govenment bonds are 37 ones as of 2025. They bear joint responsibility for the total issuance amount each month.
- Joint issuances are designed to protect bondholders through joint responsibility for principal and interest repayment as well as promote demand for local government by enhancing the creditworthiness of the securities.
- In addition, to ensure that the issuer can repay principal and interest in a timely manner even in the event of an unforeseen event such as a natural disaster, a fund will be established at a bank, separate from the joint debt, to strengthen liquidity by using part of the issuer's redemption funds.
Article 5-7 of the Local Finance Act:
When local bonds are issued, two or more local public bodies, on approval of their respective assemblies, may issue bonds jointly. Such local public bodies shall be collectively responsible for the redemption of the local bonds and the interest payments.