The paper discusses the role the financial sector can play in supporting growth in Japan. While overall credit …). Firm-level SME data and sectoral corporate balance sheets show that many SMEs have faced structural challenges of high … support measures should be phased out and SME restructuring be accelerated. Efforts are also needed to deepen capital markets …

, Education, and Other Services are among the most affected sectors. The jobs at risk due to COVID-19 related SME business …

Productivity growth in Japan, as in most advanced economies, has moderated. This paper finds supportive evidence for … the important role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in explaining Japan's modest productivity growth. Results …. SMEs, on average, exhibit lower productivity growth than non-SMEs in Japan, with smaller and older SMEs showing …