After the burst of the bubble economy, Japanese economy has been changed drastically. Traditionally, Japanese economy was characterized as a bank-centered economy, but the banking system did not function well in the 1990's. Responding to banking problems, the Japanese government initiated the...

After the burst of the bubble economy, Japanese economy has been changed drastically. Traditionally, Japanese economy was characterized as a bank-centered economy, but the banking system did not function well in the 1990's. Responding to banking problems, the Japanese government initiated the...

This study examines the relation between bank equity ownership and corporate hedging in Japan, an economy where banks are allowed, to a certain limit, to hold shares of firms to which they lend funds. The results show that bank equity ownership is positively related to the corporate usage of...

Comparing loans made by main banks to those made by life insurance companies, we test for the existence of specialization in corporate lending. Using a detailed data set with information on individual loans made in Japan in the early 1980s, we empirically examine credit specialization on the...

This study examines the effect of banking sector consolidation on bank profit and cost efficiency using data from Japan. Our analysis shows that bank merger events have little impact on profit efficiency, but significantly lower cost efficiency. This suggests that government-coordinated...