Berkshire Hathaway CEO Abel says raising debt in Japan remains appropriate

Greg Abel’s first major strategic signal as Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO is clear: Japan isn’t a Buffett relic. It’s the plan going forward.

Abel, who took over the top job on January 1, 2026, has reaffirmed that raising debt in Japan remains an appropriate strategy for the conglomerate. The approach is straightforward in concept if unusual in scale: borrow in yen at historically low interest rates, use the proceeds to buy stakes in Japanese companies whose dividends exceed those borrowing costs, and pocket the spread.

The yen debt machine keeps humming

Berkshire issued a yen bond offering of approximately 272 billion yen, roughly $1.7 billion, in April 2026. That brought its total outstanding yen-denominated debt past the 1.5 trillion yen mark.

The average interest cost on that debt sits around 1.2% or lower. The dividends flowing back from Berkshire’s Japanese equity holdings are exceeding those borrowing costs, generating positive carry on a multi-billion-dollar position.

The yen borrowing also serves as a natural currency hedge. By holding yen-denominated liabilities against yen-denominated assets, Berkshire sidesteps the exchange rate risk that torpedoes many cross-border investment strategies.

A 10% grip on Japan’s trading giants

The roots of this strategy trace back to 2019, when Buffett began quietly accumulating shares in Japan’s five major trading houses: Itochu, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, and Marubeni. Berkshire now holds approximately 10% stakes in all five.

Abel hasn’t stopped at the trading houses, either. In March 2026, Berkshire acquired a 2.49% stake in Tokio Marine Holdings for approximately $1.8 billion. Tokio Marine is Japan’s largest property and casualty insurer, a sector Berkshire knows intimately through its own insurance operations at GEICO and General Re.

Abel’s continuity play with a quiet twist

Buffett built the position. Abel is expanding it. The Tokio Marine acquisition was entirely an Abel-era move, and the April bond offering was the largest single yen issuance Berkshire had undertaken.

Berkshire’s cash reserves provide an extraordinary safety net for this kind of aggression. With nearly $370 billion in cash on hand as of early 2026, the company could absorb significant mark-to-market losses on its Japanese holdings without breaking a sweat.

The real test will come if Japan’s rate environment shifts. The Bank of Japan has been gradually moving away from its ultra-loose monetary policy, and any meaningful rise in yen borrowing costs would compress the spread that makes this strategy work.