TOKYO -- Foreign-currency deposits held by Japanese households reached their highest point in three years this June as low interest rates spurred savers to hunt for better returns and banks to seek more fee income to supplement shrinking profits.
The total grew 9% on the year to 6.15 trillion yen ($54.5 billion) at the end of that month, Bank of Japan data shows. This continued a steady rise since the central bank's February 2016 adoption of negative rates that has boosted deposits by roughly 500 billion yen compared with March of that year.
