On Thursday the Bank of Japan (BOJ) undertook an emergency bond-buying operation for shorter-term notes, as the 20-year government bond yield reached a nearly eight-year high.

The 20-year note’s yield rose 5 basis points, reaching 1.320%, the highest level it has seen since October of 2014.

Since the surprise hike of the cap on the 10-year bond yield to 0.5%, from 0.25%, yields across the curve have been rising.

Kazuhiko Sano, a strategist at Tokai Tokyo Securities observed, “The allowance of the wider band for 10-year notes only fueled speculations for the Bank of Japan’s further actions, which are driving sell-offs.”

Sano noted as the 20-year yield has risen, it has only added upward pressure to the 10-year yield.

On Thursday in early trading, the Bank of Japan conducted unscheduled emergency bond buying, focused on securities with one- to ten-year maturities, followed by a similar operation for five- to ten-year maturities.

For a second straight session, the bank also offered to purchase unlimited numbers of bonds with two- and five-year maturities.

Those operations were performed on top of the BOJ’s normal daily offers to purchase unlimited bonds with ten-year maturities.

10-year Japanese Treasury yield was up 0.5 basis points to 0.455%. The 30-year Japanese Treasury yield rose 4.5 basis points to 1.615%. The 40-year Japanese Treasury yield was up 05 basis points to 0.045%. The five-year yield held steady at 0.240%.