How to waste $250 billion
Japan is finally ready to spend public money on its sick financial system. It seems less inclined to fix the problems
SLOWLY, ever so slowly, Japan's politicians have come to acknowledge that they have a problem on their hands. A decade after they came to inspire awe as the world's largest and richest institutions, Japan's banks are in desperate straits. If they honestly admitted the market value of the loans, shares and property they hold, many would be insolvent. The size of the hole staggers the imagination. The latest official figure for the banking system's bad loans, ¥77 trillion ($600 billion), may still be an underestimate, and the gap in life-insurance companies' accounts may be ¥60 trillion more.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “How to waste $250 billion”
From the January 24th 1998 edition
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