The role of the Development Bank of Japan in seeing the country through its export crisis is mired in confusion as it is caught between its public past and private future. However, the state-owned Japan Bank for International Co-operation is having no such problems in bailing out the overseas operations of Japanese exporters. Writer Charles Smith in Tokyo
Japan’s banks continue to make steady progress back to health, and many would argue that the big banks are already there. With an aggregate pre-tax profit of $51.3bn, the Japanese banking sector has surpassed last year’s $32.4bn, and left 2003’s pre-tax losses of $39.3bn a distant memory.
Since Merrill Lynch acquired Yamaichi Securities in 1998, it has not been an easy passage for the firm’s Japanese business. But, as Yoshiyuki Fujisawa tells Sophie Roell, this year, the tide has turned.It may have been a long time coming, but Merrill Lynch’s Japanese operations have had a bumper year. The bank chalked up about $130m in profits, making it the most lucrative foreign brokerage in Japan. “We enjoyed a good year last year,” says Yoshiyuki Fujisawa, chairman of Merrill Lynch Japan Securities. “And hopefully, this year will be [good], too.”
Nomura may not be the swashbuckling firm that it was in the 1980s and 1990s but, according to Zenji Nakamura, head of global markets, Europe, that will not prevent it from regaining a more prominent position in the international capital markets. Geraldine Lambe finds out how it intends to flex its Asian advantage.
Last month’s proposal of marriage between MTFG and UFJ would create the largest bank in Japan, but it will only be positive news if the two businesses can be integrated, writes Geraldine Lambe For the Japanese banking system, recuperation has been a long and painful process. It is only now, after more than a decade of despair, that Japan’s so-called mega-banks are ready to start performing as mega-banks should.