Banks' asset portfolios changed significantly in the 1980s in Japan. This reflected the structural changes in corporate financing, namely, the shift from reliance on bank lending to capital market financing--the behavior particularly evident among large manufacturing firms--against the...

Japan has continuously run a current-account surplus since fiscal 1981, though the rise of the surplus has fluctuated widely. The ratio of current-account surplus to GDP expanded rapidly in the first half of the 1980s, reaching 4.4 percent in fiscal 1986. It then declined to 1.3 percent in...

Japan's international investment position (IIP) recorded a net asset position, the outstanding amount of external financial assets of residents in Japan minus the outstanding amount of external financial liabilities of residents in Japan, of 215.1 trillion yen at year-end 2006. This represents...

On the first business day of January 2001, the Bank of Japan introduced the new RTGS system, making real-time gross settlement (RTGS) the only mode for its settlement system for funds and Japanese government securities (JGSs) and abolishing designated-time net settlement.

In fiscal 2000, Japanese banks recorded small net losses for the year for the first time in two years. This was mainly because the amount of nonperforming loan (NPL) disposal continued to exceed operating profits from core business. Financial strength weakened as unrealized capital gains on...

There are two contrasting evaluations of the conduct of Japan's monetary policy since the early 1990s. One is that monetary policy has not been easy enough to promote economic recovery in Japan. The other is that since monetary policy has already been substantially eased, further easing would...

Japan's external financial assets increased in 2010. While the yen value of foreign currency- denominated assets decreased due to the yen's appreciation, this was more than offset by net purchases of foreign securities by Japanese investors under portfolio investment and increases in securities...

During fiscal 1995, wholesale prices and corporate service prices continued to fall, while consumer prices remained rather stable. During the first half of the fiscal year, the pace of decline in wholesale prices quickened somewhat, reflecting the rapid appreciation of the yen and the pause in...

In the balance of payments for 1999, the current account surplus registered 12.2 trillion yen, while the capital and financial account showed a net outflow of 5.6 trillion yen, down sharply from a net outflow of 17.3 trillion yen in 1998 which primarily reflected movements in the financial...

In recent years, a growing number of financial services companies in major industrial countries have begun to make inroads into each other's sectors, spurred by changing financial needs, innovations in financial engineering, deregulation, and a variety of other trends and developments. These...