Net purchases of Japanese stocks by nonresident investors hit a record high 12.624 trillion yen in 2005 as net buying exceeded 1 trillion yen for the sixth consecutive month in December, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
The data underscore that nonresident investors played the leading role last year in pushing up Japanese stock prices amid growing expectations that deflation will come to an end. The Tokyo Stock Exchange's key Nikkei average posted a 40 percent rise in 2005.
It is difficult to compare the latest data with 2004 because the ministry changed the way it compiles the statistics, but net stock buying in 2005 was much larger than the 10.527 trillion yen bought in 2004.