Japanese development bank, the Japan Bank for International Co-operation, is tasked with integrating broader Asian demands into its operations. Environmental finance and capital markets support are two areas of increasing prominence for the bank.

For the first time in its modern economic history, Japan is being hotly pursued by China, which recently became the world's second-largest economy. Nomura Research Institute's chief economist reveals what Japan needs to learn if it is to maintain its lofty position in the new global economic order.

Nomura is making an audacious bid to turn itself into a global investment bank, and its co-head of global investment banking is happy with the progress made so far. Writer Geraldine Lambe

The chairman and CEO of Daiwa Capital Markets Europe talks about the business's shift from Japanese securities house to pan-Asian investment banking presence with a European footprint.

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