Competition in Japanese Financial Markets, 2002

In early 2002, Japan, the world's largest economy, had been mired in a decade-long recession. A range of stimulus packages had failed to work their magic. The "Big Bang" financial deregulation reforms announced in 1998 had not quite produced the economic boom that the government had anticipated. Japan struggled to find its place in the increasingly global 21st century. Japan's commercial banks, once the largest in the world, struggled under the weight of their nonperforming loans. Japan's investment banks--the likes of Nomura--remained powerful behemoths. But they had scaled back their global ambitions and were in danger of being eclipsed in their own backyard by a range of foreign financial intermediaries. Meanwhile, the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, accelerated a U.S. economic recession and raised the level of uncertainty in the global business environment across the board. It also contributed to the global investment banking industry's worst slowdown since the 1970s, with large firms recording worldwide slumps in revenues and profits of between 40% and 50%.