TOKYO - Japan's finance ministry plans to increase sales of government bonds for the first time in four years, with more issues of shorter-dated debt, as the Bank of Japan exits from ultra-loose policy.

Market issuance by periodic auctions will be brought to 172.3 trillion yen($1.09 trillion) in the fiscal year starting April 2025, up by 1.3 trillion yen from this fiscal year, on an initial budget basis, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Friday.

The Bank of Japan's retreat from a decade-long radical stimulus programme is pressuring the government to shorten the duration of bonds as market players seek to reduce risks around interest rate hikes.

The largest increase will be seen in the sale of Treasury bills, 2.4 trillion yen more than this year, as the ministry aims to respond to heavy demand for such shorted-dated bills.

The MOF said the BOJ would no longer buy Treasury bills with cash the central bank obtains from government bonds that matured.

"The MOF wants to supply more Treasury bills to the market to correct the distorted yield curve of those bills," said Katsutoshi Inadome, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management.

"The yields on Treasury bills are too low now because of the high demand from the market. That does not reflect a trend of rising yields."

The sale of five year bonds will be raised by 1.2 trillion to 28.8 trillion yen to meet demand from local banks, while sales of two-year, 10-year, and 20-year bonds will be unchanged.

The average term of maturity of the bonds in the market will be reduced to 8 years and one month next year, down from 8 years and five months this year.

The government also needs to fill a huge hole left by the BOJ's diminishing presence in the JGB market.

After buying bonds aggressively to reflate growth, the central bank now owns roughly half of total Japanese government bonds, with more than 80% ownership in most issues of 10-year bonds.

The BOJ in July decided on a quantitative tightening (QT) plan that would halve monthly bond buying to 3 trillion yen as of January-March 2026.

The MOF reduced sales of super-long bonds, with maturities of 30 and 40 years, to reflect shrinking demand from life insurers, as they have mostly completed purchases for meeting new capital requirements.

The announcement was in line with a Reuters report on Thursday.

($1 = 157.7600 yen)

(Reporting by Junko Fujita Editing by Shri Navaratnam)