Retail sales of corporate bonds in Japan are booming and on pace to exceed last year's record, driven by investors seeking higher returns to hedge against inflation, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

Aeon Co (TYO:8267) and Keio Corp. (TYO:9008) are increasingly entering this market, attracting retail investors with attractive yields, said the news wire.

Notably, SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:8267) is offering a 3.34% rate on five-year notes-nearly triple the yield on comparable government bonds, said the publication.

Sales have already reached approximately 1.5 trillion yen in the first five months of the current fiscal year, following a record 2.4 trillion in corporate bonds sold to individual investors in the previous fiscal year, added the report.

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