Since the mid-2000s, Japan's industrial production (IP) has been characterized by increasing volatility. To examine the background to this, we apply the structural factor analysis developed by Foerster, Sarte, and Watson (2011) and decompose variations in Japan's IP into aggregate and sectoral...

By applying the structural factor analysis developed by Foerster et al. (2011), we decompose the fluctuations of Japan’s industrial production (IP) into sectoral shocks and aggregate shocks, taking input–output relationships between sectors into account. Our results show that, except for the...

Since the mid-2000s, Japan's industrial production (IP) has been characterized by increasing volatility. To examine the background to this, we apply the structural factor analysis developed by Foerster, Sarte, and Watson (2011) and decompose variations in Japan's IP into aggregate and sectoral...

Japanese banks have largely overcome the nonperforming loan problem that constituted their greatest challenge after the mid-1990s. In fiscal 2005, both the major banks and the regional banks registered record levels of net income. Improvements have also been made in capital adequacy ratios....

There is no single, widely-accepted definition of "market liquidity" even though the expression "market liquidity is high/low" is frequently used, and measuring market liquidity is not easy. Recognizing these challenges, this paper formulates a set of new liquidity indicators using transaction...