By Anton Bridge
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group on Friday posted a 44% rise in second-quarter net profit as it cashed in on a long-awaited rise in domestic interest rates and the continuing wave of corporate action fuelled by the end of deflation in Japan.
Profit for July-September reached 399 billion yen ($2.65 billion), compared to 277 billion yen over the same period a year earlier, Japan’s third-largest banking group said.
Mizuho raised its profit forecast to 1.13 trillion yen from 1.02 trillion yen for the financial year to March 2026 and announced a 200 billion yen share buyback, after a buyback of 100 billion yen in May.
The results also demonstrated Mizuho’s success in weathering uncertain global economic conditions this year following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of wide-ranging import tariffs in April.
As tariff-induced uncertainty waned, large Japanese firms, which make up the bulk of Mizuho’s corporate clients, continued corporate actions such as planned mergers and acquisitions and capital expenditure, supporting loan demand.
“There’s still a lot of uncertainty concerning tariffs. If for instance 15% tariffs are imposed on cars, the components and materials may be subject to different tariffs,” Mizuho chief executive Masahiro Kihara told a press briefing in Tokyo.
“But corporate actions have steadily returned,” Kihara said.
Under years of rock-bottom interest rates, Japan’s banks looked to expand profit opportunities beyond their core domestic lending operations through international expansion and targeting growth areas such as wealth management.
Non-interest income in Mizuho’s global corporate and investment banking unit grew nearly 20% in the six months to September compared to the same period the year before.
“Since the negative interest rates period we have massively increased our revenue streams, including abroad,” Kihara said.
Mizuho hit a record annual net profit in the year ended March 2025 and had already lifted its full-year profit forecast 15% at its first-quarter earnings in July.
($1 = 150.7800 yen)
(Reporting by Anton Bridge; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Himani Sarkar and Kate Mayberry)
