Foreign Flows | Week 1 of Sep 2026: Foreigners Swing From ¥174.7bn Net Selling to ¥728.8bn Net Buying, Trust-Bank Selling Widens to ¥442.7bnA · FULL TRANSLATION
- In week 1 of Sep 2026 (31 Aug–4 Sep) foreigners bought a net ¥728.8bn, reversing the prior week's ¥174.7bn of selling — a swing of over ¥900bn.
- Domestic institutions all sold: trust banks net ¥442.7bn (¥200.3bn prior) and investment trusts ¥298.1bn (¥56.9bn prior), both widening.
- Individuals stayed net sellers at ¥54.6bn (¥53.5bn prior), a similar pace to the prior week.
- Foreigners made up 68.8% of brokerage trading value, up 4.2 points from 64.6%; individuals fell from 28.7% to 24.6%.
- Foreign buying absorbed domestic pension and investment-trust profit-taking; weekly data offers only a prior-week comparison.
Foreign investors are back, and in size. JPX investor-type data show that in the first week of September 2026 (31 Aug–4 Sep) foreigners bought a net ¥728.8bn on TSE Prime, reversing the prior week's ¥174.7bn of net selling — a one-week swing of over ¥900bn and the strongest foreign buying since this series began. Yet in the same week all three major domestic groups sold: trust banks (largely pension money) widened net selling to ¥442.7bn, investment trusts to ¥298.1bn, individuals ¥54.6bn. Foreigners buying and domestic institutions selling means overseas buy orders absorbed domestic profit-taking. Foreigners' share of trading value also jumped to 68.8% (from 64.6%). This series asks one thing each edition: who is trading against whom? For week 1 of September the answer is clear — overseas money versus domestic pensions and investment trusts.
In the prior edition (week of 24–28 August 2026), foreign investors were net sellers of ¥174.7bn on the TSE Prime market, part of several weeks of narrowing selling. This edition (week of 31 Aug–4 Sep, by value) turned the picture upside down: foreigners bought a net ¥728.8bn, a one-week swing of about ¥903.5bn from selling to buying — the strongest single-week foreign buying since we began tracking this series.
What matters most is who took the other side. As foreigners bought heavily, all three major domestic groups sat on the sell side, and sold harder than last week: trust banks (largely pension and retirement money managed on behalf of others) widened net selling from ¥200.3bn to ¥442.7bn, investment trusts from ¥56.9bn to ¥298.1bn, and individuals stayed net sellers at ¥54.6bn (¥53.5bn prior). In short, this wave of foreign buying was met by domestic institutions taking profits and trimming positions.
The activity also shows in the trading mix: foreigners accounted for 68.8% of brokerage trading value this week, up 4.2 points from 64.6% in the prior edition, while individuals fell from 28.7% to 24.6%. When the foreign share spikes and sits on the buy side, the short-term steering wheel for the index is effectively in overseas hands, while trust banks selling for consecutive weeks typically signals pension-side trimming near relative highs.
Baseline note: this is weekly data; JPX provides only a prior-week comparison, with no year-earlier or pre-pandemic fixed baseline, so this piece compares to the prior week only, with values rounded to hundreds of millions of yen.