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 investme...