Japan Falls to No. 3 Creditor With ¥561.75 Trillion in Assets as China Overtakes

3 articles · Updated · Reuters · May 25

Japan ranked as the world’s third-largest net creditor in 2025, even as its net external assets rose 4.4% to a record ¥561.75 trillion ($3.53 trillion).
China moved ahead with ¥636.3 trillion in net external assets, while Germany stayed first at ¥675.5 trillion, helped by annual trade surpluses that outpaced Japan’s position.
Japan’s asset growth was partly offset by swelling external liabilities, including a ¥62.2 trillion valuation increase in Japanese securities held by non-resident investors after the domestic stock market’s strong run.
The drop extends Japan’s slide after it lost the top spot to Germany last year for the first time in 34 years, despite logging an eighth straight annual increase in net external assets.

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