This book theoretically and empirically explores why Japanese banks engaged in seemingly contradictory behaviors in the 1990s, namely, the credit crunch and evergreening, i.e., inefficient additional lending. A credit crunch occurs when banks are unwilling to finance good and efficient projects....

As for recent Japanese bank behavior, there exist two inefficacies. One is credit crunch, that is, banks hesitate to lend money to new good projects. The other is excessive additional loan to bad-performing firms. These two perverse bank behaviors look like contradictive each other. In this...