Book Description

April 1995 Is Japan a good model for developing countries? Certainly macroeconomic stability, good information systems, effective monitoring, and financial discipline are essential for smooth-functioning, efficient financial systems. But is there scope for state intervention in organizing the financial system and using well-designed, narrowly focused directed credit programs in the transition from malfunctioning financial systems to modern, efficient ones? The Japanese government's role in creating a macroeconomic and financial environment conducive to rapid industrialization and economic growth went beyond maintaining price stability, say Vittas and Kawaura. The government created a stable but segmented and tightly regulated financial system that favored the financing of industry over other sectors of economic activity. Lending practices, the direction of policy-based finance, and the structure of Japan's financial system changed over time, but one thing stayed constant: the authorities' vision. Some observers maintain that Japanese policies -- emphasizing the development of internationally competitive industries -- retarded economic growth. And government policies were not the only or even the most important factor in Japan's success. One key to success was government agencies' close cooperation with the private sector, and the government's reliance on privately owned and managed corporations to achieve government-favored industrial goals. Japan's financial system was quite different from Anglo-American and continental European financial systems. Vittas and Kawaura discuss some characteristics of the Japanese system in the high growth era: * The preponderant role of indirect finance. * The overloan position of large commercial banks. * The overborrowing of industrial companies. * Artificially low interest rates. * The segmentation and fragmentation of the financial system. * The underdevelopment of securities markets and institutional investors. * The key role played by the main bank system. * The close relations between banks and industry. * The different roles debt and equity played in the Japanese system. * The role large conglomerate groups, especially general trading companies, played in channeling funds to small firms at the industrial periphery. * The role of policy-based financial institutions. These features evolved in the context of high savings rates and an accumulation of assets, mobilized mostly through deposit institutions, including the postal savings system, and transformed into short- and long-term and risky loans through commercial and long-term credit banks as well as specialized government financial institutions. Are hard work and good management the secrets of Japan's success? Hard work may be as much a symptom as a cause of economic success, say Vittas and Kawaura. But good management has unquestionably been a key to Japan's economic success. Whether Japan's approach is better than others is more difficult to answer. Japan may have overtaken several European countries but was still lagging behind the United States and a few European countries in per capita income expressed in purchasing power parity terms. And although the Japanese approach played a significant part in promoting industrialization and accelerating economic growth during the period of reconstruction and high growth, it also entailed significant long-term costs -- in terms of poor-quality housing and other urban infrastructure, for example. And the excesses of the 1980s and Japan's current economic recession undermine claims about its ability to continuously outperform other countries. This paper -- a product of the Financial Sector Development Department -- is part of a project to study the effectiveness of credit policies in East Asia. Dimitri Vittas may be contacted at [email protected].