Japan's 10-year government bond yield breached 3% this week for the first time since 1996, reaching its highest level in three decades before easing to around 2.96%, and is forcing Japanese companies long accustomed to ultra-low rates to overhaul funding and balance-sheet strategies. A Bloomberg survey of 30 non-financial firms with outstanding yen-denominated bonds found at least 14 considering equity and asset sales; KDDI listed asset sales among debt-reduction options, while Chugoku Electric Power said it could accelerate asset and strategic stake disposals if rates rise further. The average cost of issuing yen corporate bonds has jumped tenfold from a decade earlier, when the Bank of Japan first adopted negative rates, and the 30 surveyed companies face a combined ¥6.74 trillion (about $43.3 billion) in bond redemptions by the end of August 2028. Toyota Motor and Tohoku Electric Power estimate that refinancing yen bonds maturing within two years would lift annual interest costs by more than 30%. Firms are also turning abroad: Japanese companies have issued more than $110 billion in dollar- and euro-denominated bonds so far this year, the most of any Asia-Pacific country, while JERA plans greater use of foreign-currency funding and interest-rate swaps and Tokyo Electric Power Grid is considering front-loading financing. Researcher Shumpei Fujita of Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting has flagged early signs that higher capital costs are weighing on investment in metal products and electric power and gas. The yield surge, alongside yen weakness and expectations for further Bank of Japan tightening—including at the policy meeting on the 18th—has also kept global focus on yen carry-trade unwind risks, after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that disorderly yen moves could force liquidations and raise US borrowing costs.