Zeitschrift für Japanisches Recht
Heft Nr.12 / 6. Jahrgang 2001
The New Regulatory and
Supervisory Architecture
of Japan’s Financial Markets
Hiroko Aoki
I. Motive for the Reform of the Financial Regulatory Agencies
II. Functional Analysis of the New System
2. The New FSA (Kin’yûchô,including the SESC)
3. The MOF since 2001 (Zaimushô)
4. The METI (Ministry of Economy, Trace and Industry, Keizai Sangyôshô)
III. Industries Under the Transition
I. Motive for the Reform of the Financial Regulatory Agencies[1]
1. Background
Although signs of the collapse of the MOF (Ministry of Finance, Ôkurashô, since 2001 Zaimushô)[2] could be observed prior to this, one of the important incidents that increased the attack on the MOF’s rule was the Jûsen Scandal in 1995. In this incident, the MOF decided to contribute 685 billion Yen to the solution for the bad debts incurred by those companies founded by financial institutions for the estate finance, but in reality used as a bypass to extend high-risk loans.
The critics deemed the concentration of powers as a cause for the MOF’s unaccountably arbitrary administration, including budget making, taxation, management of national property in general, and the regulation of financial institutions. Opposing
[1] Literature: <http://politics.j.u-tokyo.ac.jp/lab/edu/seminar/study/1st-semi/seifu/sakigake/06-2.htm> (document on the political party Shintô Sakigake, filed in Prof. Kabashima, Univ. of Tokyo Law School’s homepage); M. Kondô et al., Shôken torihiki-hô nyûmon (An Introduction to the Securities Law) (2nd ed. 1999) (relatively frequently updated, co-authored by young corporate law scholars but one of the authoritative books despite the title “introduction”); M. Sakata, Shôken Torihiki-tô Kanshi I’inkai [On the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission] (1993), a general instructional book with documents by bureaucrats of the MOF.
[2] As a rule, abbreviations for administrative organizations are attached with the full official English name and the full official Japanese name (in italics) when it appears for the first time in this article. Please note that other cases, such as the names of laws, are not necessarily accompanied with the official English names; some of these are translated by the author of this article and are thus unofficial.
