Dead, or just resting?

FULLY committed to painful structural reform: so Masajuro Shiokawa, Japan's finance minister, promised he was when he met his counterparts from other G7 countries at the weekend. Topping his list of reforms is getting banks to dispose of the very worst of their bad debts, which, under official guidelines, come to around ¥13 trillion ($104 billion). If banks do this, some of their weakest borrowers will be thrown into bankruptcy, with an inevitable and overdue shake-up of ailing, overcrowded industries, such as construction and retailing, to follow.