Wal-Mart Stores sold ¥100 billion in Samurai bonds on Thursday, underscoring Japanese investors' strong demand for U.S. debt as long as issuers are not saddled with losses from the global credit crunch.

The sale, valued at $927 million, was Wal-Mart's first offer of these bonds, which are yen bonds sold by non-Japanese entities in Japan. It was also the first U.S. Samurai from a nonfinancial company since Ford Motor issued such bonds in February 2005.

The bonds interested Japanese investors because they have had only limited exposure to debt from sectors other than the U.S. bank and insurance industries.

Moreover, market participants said investors welcomed Wal-Mart's globally recognizable name and its image of being free from losses stemming from the credit crisis and investment in the stumbling U.S. housing sector.

"Wal-Mart attracted larger demand than some had thought," said Mana Nakazora, head of credit research at JPMorgan Securities. "The deal showed how big demand would be for bonds from companies that are little impacted by the subprime mortgage woes."

In fact, investors shrugged off concerns that a slowing U.S. economy could further erode consumer spending and retail sales.

The popularity of the Wal-Mart bonds was a sharp contrast to debt from U.S. financial institutions that have been notably inactive in the Samurai market this year. U.S. banks and other financial companies have been dominant Samurai issuers in the past, but that has all changed as Japanese institutional investors have become worried about the U.S. financial sector meltdown.

Citigroup sold ¥186.5 billion of Samurai bonds in June, the biggest Samurai issuance this year, to individual investors. Many market participants doubted that Citigroup could have sold yen bonds to institutional investors in such large amounts.

Samurais are popular in Japan as they offer higher coupons than debt from Japanese issuers with similar credit ratings.

Japanese investors are thirsty for yields because domestic interest rates remain very low. The Bank of Japan has been keeping its main interest rate target at 0.5 percent for more than a year and is expected to stand pat for some time.

Foreign issuers sold a record $13.5 billion worth of bonds in Japan in the first half of this year, the highest first-half volume on record, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The money raised in Samurai bonds is providing an important source of financing for overseas companies that have found it tough to raise money since the subprime crisis erupted.