The REIT idea?

WHAT does a lender do with a mountain of near-worthless collateral? After years of writing down bad loans, Japanese banks are still chock-a-block with troubled credits. Even at today's deflated prices, the property that secures them is worth ¥157 trillion ($1.2 trillion), estimates Tokunosuke Hasegawa, a land expert at Meikai University. That is half as much again as the value of all the land on Kyushu and Shikoku, two of Japan's four main islands. To get rid of the stuff, Japan's finance ministry wants to copy an idea from America—real-estate investment trusts (REITs).