The Japanese yen has been under pressure for some time. As policymakers in Tokyo grapple with sky-high debt and artificially low interest rates, smart companies are looking for ways to take advantage. One name is popping up more and more often: the Japanese Metaplanet, according to economist Robin Brooks.
Japanese yen under pressure: risk of crisis growing
The Japanese economy has been balancing on a tightrope of rising debt and low interest rates for years. According to economist Robin Brooks, this will lead to a “structurally weak yen”, he writes in his newsletter.
In 2025, the yen reached an all-time low against other major currencies. This is due to a combination of an aging population, skyrocketing government debt and market disruptions caused by the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) policy. According to Brooks, they continue to buy government bonds en masse, keeping long-term interest rates artificially low.
“The risks of a debt crisis are not expressed in interest rates, but in the currency,” Brooks said. That explains why the yen continues to fall even as interest rates rise.
Against this background, Metaplanet takes a strategic step: it borrows money in yen and uses it to buy Bitcoin (BTC). The value of that debt falls along with the weakening yen, while BTC holdings rise rapidly in value.
Metaplanet is originally a Japanese media and hotel company that has been active since the 1990s. In 2024, the company completely changed course and transformed itself into a BTC reserve company. It was inspired by Strategy by Michael Saylor, the largest listed BTC company in the world.
According to analyst Adam Livingston, Strategy and Metaplanet operate “in a class of their own”. Both companies are betting on what he calls “bitcoin amplification”: strategies that convert every dollar, second and glimmer of hope for financial recovery into more BTC per share.
Where Michael Saylor stacks BTC as if his life depends on it, Metaplanet uses the low interest rates and weak yen as a financial shortcut that regulators seem to miss.
By comparison, Strategy pays 10 percent interest annually to investors on its loans, and that in hard dollars. Metaplanet, on the other hand, only pays 4.9 percent interest, and that too in yen. Because that currency becomes less and less valuable, the real value of the interest obligation decreases. As a result, Metaplanet has more money left over and its value per share increases faster than its competitors.
Metaplanet currently owns 35,102 BTC. At a Bitcoin price of $90,000, this amounts to a value of more than $3.1 billion, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries. At the end of December, the company purchased an additional 4,279 BTC.
Yet Strategy remains the undisputed market leader for the time being. With a whopping 673,783 BTC in its possession, the company represents a stock worth approximately $60.6 billion.
Source: https://newsbit.nl/metaplanet-leent-in-yen-en-koopt-bitcoin-slim-inspelen-op-een-zwakke-munt/
