Japan will buy US$10.3 billion (RMB65 billion) in Chinese government debt, Reuters reported, quoting Japanese finance minister Jun Azumi on Tuesday. The purchase will be the biggest international investment thus far in China’s gradually internationalizing currency and represents a symbolic step in the shift of the global economy towards China. “For China, the move is linked to its efforts to internationalize the yuan – allowing foreign investments in its debt market will make the yuan more accepted internationally,” said Zhang Yongjun, an economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, a government think tank. Japan agreed at a summit in December to strengthen financial cooperation with China, its largest trading partner, including increasing the use of the yuan and yen in bilateral trade.