Toshins are investment vehicles which allow Japanese retail clients to invest in overseas securities. Investment houses package large amounts of investors together, often totalling billions of dollars worth. Early last week there were some new Toshin launches which were incredibly (over 90%) undersubscribed. This will have set off some alarm bells in the industry. In the next two weeks we are set to see some big Toshin maturities. Normally, a significant percentage of maturities is re-invested in another vehicle, thereby creating no FX transaction. Some of the big Japanese banks have been issuing reports in recent weeks saying that this months Toshin maturities will not be rolled over and thus will lead to some heavy JPY buying, particularly against the AUD and the NZD.