China has boosted its purchases of Japanese government bonds this year, snapping up a net 541 billion yen ($6 billion) of mostly short-term JGBs in January-April, double the record amount logged for all of 2005, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The move came as the euro has sunk more than 14 percent against the dollar this year, reflecting investor concerns over Europe's debt crisis.

The Nikkei said 517.7 billion yen of the JGB purchases consisted of debt maturing in less than a year and 23.4 billion yen was in medium- to long-term securities.

In April, China bought a net 197.8 billion yen of JGBs, the second biggest after Britain among foreign buyers, with just just 4.6 percent, or 31 trillion yen, of outstanding JGBs being held by foreigners at the end of March, the paper said. (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

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