That yen hoard has mostly been held as cash with the aim of ploughing into Japanese bonds when yields eventually turn higher.
"We're all waiting for the end of YCC so we can buy JGBs," said a Japanese pension fund manager who requested anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to media.
Japanese banks have ploughed money into overseas bonds, but insurance firms and pension funds have kept their powder dry.
MARKETS WONT BLINKSuch is the positioning and inertia among long term Japanese investors that analysts expect markets to barely blink even if the BOJ plays for time this week.
Lifers and pension funds say they have very little exposure to Japanese government bonds, so a surprise policy change won't hurt them either.
Persons:
Androniki, Haruhiko Kuroda, Kazuo Ueda, Bart Wakabayashi, Hirofumi Suzuki, Suzuki, Kevin Buckland, Ankur Banerjee, Vidya Ranganathan
Organizations:
REUTERS, Bank of, Japan, Nippon Life Insurance, Sumitomo Life Insurance, Insurance, State, Thomson
Locations:
Japan, Tokyo, TOKYO, SINGAPORE, YCC, Singapore