Japan's 25, 30 and 40 year bond yields all set records on Tuesday, and its one, two and three year yields fell on the same day

4.103 percent.

That is the 40-year yield the Japanese Ministry of Finance published for Tuesday, and no daily reading in that column has ever been higher. The series begins in November 2007. The 30-year, whose column runs back to September 1999, closed at 4.096 percent, and the 25-year, which starts in March 2004, closed at 4.112 percent. All three are the highest figures the ministry has ever printed for those maturities.

None of this reaches the short end. One-year paper eased from 1.439 to 1.431 percent on the same day, the two-year from 1.696 to 1.691, and the three-year from 1.852 to 1.844. The five-year did not move at all.

Where the record actually sits

The word record needs its qualifier here, and the qualifier is the point. Japan's ten-year yield closed at 2.934 percent, which is a long way below the 8.105 percent the ministry recorded on 28 September 1990. The twenty-year, at 3.829 percent, sits against a 1990 peak of 7.749 percent.

So this is not a Japanese interest rate story in the general sense. It is a story about the far end of the curve, which is also the part of the curve with the shortest published history, because Japan did not sell 40-year debt until 2007 and did not sell 25-year debt until 2004.

Two days, three tenors

The 25, 30 and 40 year columns each set their previous high on Monday. Before Monday, the 30 and 40 year records had stood since 19 May, and those May readings were the first time either maturity had reached 4 percent. The 25-year record was newer, set on 9 July at 4.065 percent.

Tuesday moved the 30-year up 4.6 basis points, the 40-year up 5.3, and the 25-year up 4.5. Over the same session the one-year fell by 0.8 of a basis point.