Mizuho pierces Nomura's Japan bubble with big-ticket global IPOs. Mizuho is strengthening its position in Japan's investment banking market by securing a key role in a string of major U.S. listings, including Anthropic's, and tapping Japanese investors for up to $3.5 billion. SHARE/SAVE Nov 9, 2026 Mizuho Financial Group is carving out a lucrative niche in Japan's equity capital market by bridging the ravenous U.S. demand for artificial intelligence fundraising and its home country's deep pool of retail savings. Anthropic's listing is the third in a string of blockbuster deals where Mizuho snagged a key role, looking to raise as much as $3.5 billion from Japanese investors. It shows that the bank is able to leverage its success in building a U.S. business to compete on a market traditionally dominated by Nomura Holdings where domestic deals have hit a drought. The Claude chatbot maker is following SpaceX in bringing a mega deal to the Japanese market, attracted to its cash-rich retail investors and a streamlined offering process. The country's households have about ¥2.4 quadrillion ($15 trillion) in financial assets, with roughly half parked in currency and deposits, according to the Bank of Japan. Mizuho has spent more than a decade to broaden its presence in the U.S. in pursuit of ambitions to become Asia's top investment bank. As a result, it was able to get the IPO roles and a leg up on local competitors including Nomura, the dominant force in Japanese equity underwriting. On this year's global equity and equity-linked league table, Mizuho is ranked 18th, the highest among Japanese banks, compared with 21st for Nomura, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. While Nomura has commanded more than a quarter of Japan's dwindling IPO market, that stronger overseas franchise is increasingly relevant to Mizuho's strategy. Expansion abroad helped build a closer relationship with global issuers, while its domestic banking network gives it distribution at home - a potent combination for global deals. "There is a potentially powerful flywheel here: access to marquee global IPOs can help Mizuho attract Japanese retail customers, while demonstrating access to Japanese retail demand can help it win roles on future global IPOs," Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michael Makdad said. These have become a crucial part of Japan's IPO market, where the number of domestic deals is at the lowest in 13 years. Showing the lack of recent marquee deals, just the Japanese tranche of the Anthropic listing is set to be the biggest in the country since SoftBank's debut in 2018, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Japan's third-biggest bank was also on the SpaceX deal, which raised $2.2 billion from Japanese retail investors, and handled the local tranche of SoftBank Group-backed PayPay's listing, the biggest by a Japanese company on a U.S. stock exchange in a decade. All of them took advantage of a structure known as a public offering without listing, where foreign issuers are able to sell shares directly to Japanese retail investors concurrently with an offshore IPO, without listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. "Mizuho has raised its profile in U.S. investment banking, and that has helped it win roles on those global deals," said Toyoki Sameshima, an analyst at SBI Securities in Tokyo "POWLs give Mizuho a tailwind by helping it gain new clients and opening the door to broader business opportunities." A representative from Mizuho declined to comment. A Nomura representative said the bank has worked on more than 30 POWL transactions since 2001 and has built its expertise in retail distribution and deal review, adding that the bank will continue to evaluate each opportunity on a case-by-case basis, with a focus on investor protection and providing investors with thorough explanations. Mizuho under Chief Executive Officer Masahiro Kihara has accelerated its international expansion, most notably through the acquisition of boutique mergers advisory firm Greenhill. It also secured one of four top underwriting roles for Arm Holdings' listing in 2023, partly thanks to its decades-long ties with SoftBank Group. Past listings that sold shares through POWLs have also delivered lackluster returns for investors. PayPay shares are trading below their $16 offer price after the company went public in March. SpaceX's stock at one point fell below its IPO price and has since hovered around the level at which investors bought into the offering. Still, Japan's investors are starved for new listings and AI plays, which could make them a formidable force for the biggest deals. Mizuho was able to demonstrate the depth of Japanese demand with SpaceX, helping it make a compelling case to bring future offerings to the country, according to BI's Makdad. "Japanese retail capital could become a more meaningful source of demand for global equity offerings," he said. "That potentially makes Japan a much more natural market for high-profile global offerings than it was in the past." Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is also among the underwriters of the deal. Mizuho Securities will manage the Japanese portion of the share sale, while Goldman Sachs Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities, Rakuten and SBI are among companies that will handle investor orders. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. 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Paraguay's largest digital bank collapses. Published November 6, 2026 3:00 PM Updated November 6, 2026 3:02 PM In this week's banking news roundup: * Paraguay's digital bank Ueno abruptly shutters, crippling the country's banking system and national government; * Oklahoma City-based Bank7 Corp. completes its acquisition of Santa Fe-based Century Financial Services Corp. in an unusual deal that involved a court-ordered sale. * Royal Bank of Canada hires equity capital markets banker Mariano Gaut from Mizuho Financial Group, and more.