China buys most Japan short-term debt in 1 1/2 years

China bought the most short-term Japanese debt since May 2010 in February, according to data released by Japan's Ministry of Finance today. The world's largest holder of foreign-exchange reserves increased net purchases of short-term Japanese debt to 651 billion yen ($8 billion), the highest since May 2010, when China bought 694.8 billion yen, according to Japanese government data going back to 2005. China sold 268.8 billion yen of medium- and long-term Japanese bonds in February. (Bloomberg)