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...

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...

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...

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...

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 “Financial Big Bang” reforms during the latter half of the 1990s substantially transformed the Japanese financial system, but despite this, the level of risky assets that Japanese households have in their portfolio has not increased. One reason for this is the lack of knowledge necessary...

The large weight of public financial institutions is often identified as one of the characteristics of the Japanese financial system. It is believed that reform of the private financial sector is not enough to revitalize the Japanese financial system, but reform of the public financial sector is...