This paper reports a survey result conducted in May 2012. We sent a questionnaire to 3,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whose main business sector is manufacture and which locate in Aichi Prefecture, one of the largest economic regions in Japan. 803 SMEs answered this...

As the governance of financial institutions is becoming an important issue, there are many papers empirically investigating the governance issues of banks, which are stock companies. However, cooperative structured financial institutions (co-ops), which have a unique governance structure...

This paper aims to assess the technical efficiency of Japanese trust banks by using the stochastic distance function approach, which is suitable for analyzing complex trust banks but has never applied for Japanese trust banks. Although the trust banking industry has been one of the most...

Global incidents of major natural catastrophes are becoming increasingly common in recent years. Seismological research has shown earthquake-prone Japan to be at particular risk from not only inland earthquakes, but also from repeat incidents of major earthquakes such as the Tokai, Tonankai, and...

The commodity indexes associated with Japan’s commodity-futures markets were formed in 2008 and publicized by the Tokyo Commodity Exchange and the Tokyo Grain Exchange. In this paper, I used these indexes to analyze the properties of Japan’s commodity futures as portfolio investments, and...

This paper, using Japanese market data, finds that although the correlation between equity markets and commodity market used to be negative or almost zero before around 2006, it has increased significantly after the global financial crisis in Autumn of 2008. In this sense, the commodity market...

The question of whether more competition among banks increases relationship banking, which is predicted to improve credit availability for informationally opaque firms in theory, is a controversial issue in the banking literature. By using firm-level survey data in Japan, this paper provides...

This paper has analyzed the relationship between medium/small firms and financial institutions based on the results of questionnaires prepared for medium/small firms in the Tokai and Kansai regions. With the development of telecommunication technology and progress in securities market...

This paper has analyzed the relationship between medium/small firms and financial institutions based on the results of questionnaires prepared for medium/small firms in the Tokai and Kansai regions. With the development of telecommunication technology and progress in securities market...

Since 2003, the Financial Services Agency has set relationship banking enhancement program as an important strategic task to improve the functions of regional financial institutions. In this enhancement program, the FSA recommended that regional financial institutions introduce new financial...