For a few dollars more: Japan banks tackle dollar/yen basis jump

The dollar/yen cross-currency basis has widened nearly 50% in recent months due to a surge in demand from Japanese banks and regulatory constraints curbing supply from US dealers. With trading costs soaring, Japanese banks are turning to more exotic solutions to get their hands on US dollars

Since Japan's infamous 'lost decade' of the 1990s, the country's financial landscape has often come to resemble the bleak vision of Sergio Leone western movies, with institutions clinging on for survival in an unforgiving environment. Japan's banks, like a posse of gunslingers, have been hunting down the riches of higher-yielding assets in the form of dollar-denominated investments.

But these dollars have proved increasingly hard to come by as a combination of surging demand for cross-currency