Nobuyoshi Yamori

A note on the location choice of multinational banks: The case of Japanese financial institutions

Abstract There are many studies investigating the location choice of foreign direct investment (FDI) of US banks. Nigh et al. (Journal of International Business Studies 17 (1986) 59–72) find that the choice does not depend on local banking opportunity. This paper examines what factors affect the location choice of Japanese multinational financial institutions. Our results are consistent with previous studies analyzing US banks in that the FDI of the manufacturing industry is an important determinant of the location choice of Japanese financial institutions. However, our results differ from Nigh et al., in that Japanese financial institutions choose their locations at least partially based on the local banking opportunity in the host countries.

Does bank relationship have an economic value?: The effect of main bank failure on client firms

Abstract Previous empirical studies supported the hypothesis that banks are special due to the existence of private information. In this paper, we provide further evidence by investigating the effect of the Hokkaido Takusyoku Bank’s failure on stock returns of its client firms.

The relationship between domestic savings and investment: The Feldstein-Horioka test using Japanese regional data

Abstract The Feldstein-Horioka test on capital mobility applies to Japanese intra-national capital flows. We find that savings and investment are insignificantly correlated. This suggests that the high correlation observed by the previous studies is due to the currency premium.

The impact of Japan’s financial stabilization laws on bank equity values

In the fall of 1998, two important financial regulatory reform acts were passed in Japan. The first of these acts, the Financial Recovery Act, created a bridge bank scheme and provided funds for the resolution of failed banks. The second act, the Rapid Revitalization Act, provided funds for the assistance of troubled banks. While both of these acts provided some government assistance to the banking sector, they also called for reforms aimed at strengthening the regulatory environment. ; Using an event study framework, this paper examines the evidence in equity markets concerning the anticipated impact of the regulatory reforms. Our evidence suggests that the Financial Recovery Act was expected to hurt large banks, while the anticipated impact of the act by financial strength was mixed. In contrast, the anticipated impact of the Rapid Revitalization Act was expected to be unambiguously anti-reform, as news favorable to its passage disproportionately favored large and weak Japanese banks.

Stock Market Reaction to the Bank Liquidation in Japan: A Case for the Informational Effect Hypothesis

Previous studies investigating the stock market reaction to U.S. bank failures rejected the bank run or domino hypothesis. However, if providing relevant bank information to the public is crucial to preventing bank panics, Japanese banks with limited disclosure are more vulnerable to bank runs than their U.S. counterparts. In this paper, I investigate the stock market reaction to Hyogo Banks liquidation on August 30, 1995, which was the first bank liquidation in Japan and placed the financial burden on the general public. I find that stock market participants distinguished solvent banks from problematic banks. That is, my results, supporting the informational effect hypothesis, suggest that it is questionable even in Japan for the government to bail out an insolvent bank based on the potential risk of bank runs.

How Do Japanese Banks Discipline Small- and Medium-Sized Borrowers? An Investigation of The Deployment of Lending Technologies

This chapter empirically investigates how banks evaluate the creditworthiness of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Following SME loan underwriting literature that distinguishes among different lending technologies, we test whether the typical SME bank loan is underwritten primarily based on just a single technology. We find that although financial statement lending is the most commonly used and serves as a kind of basic technology, it tends not to be used to the exclusion of other technologies. These findings imply that, at least in Japan, SME lending practice may be inconsistent with academic research on how banks underwrite loans elsewhere.

Financial Turbulence and the Japanese Main Bank Relationship

Under the Japanese “main bank” relationship, a bank holds equity in a firm and plays a leading role in its decision-making and financing. This may leave a firm dependent on its main bank for financing due to its information advantage over other potential lenders. This dependency may be particularly severe during episodes of financial turbulence. We examine the sensitivity of returns on portfolios of Japanese firm equity to the returns of their main banks using a three-factor arbitrage-pricing model. We find no significant dependence when coefficient values are held constant over the entire sample. However, the data strongly suggest a structural break in the relationship subsequent to the last quarter of 1997, a turbulent period for Japanese financial markets. When a structural break is introduced, main bank sensitivity increases after the break, usually to significantly positive levels.

DOES THE DAY-OF-THE-WEEK EFFECT IN FOREIGN CURRENCY MARKETS DISAPPEAR? EVIDENCE FROM THE YEN/DOLLAR MARKET

The anomalous patterns in foreign exchange markets have received relatively little attention in the literature. This paper empirically investigates the Day-of-the-Week effect in the yen-dollar currency market for three decades and confirms that such effect did exist for the period 1973–1989, but it disappears for the 1990s. The results remain unchanged when the business condition effect, the January effect, the holiday effect, and the first and last day of the month effect are controlled. The results suggest that financial deregulation in Japan has made foreign currency markets more efficient in recent years.

Bureaucrat-managers and corporate governance: expense-preference behaviors in Japanese financial institutions

Abstract This paper investigates the expense-preference behaviors of Japanese financial institutions. We found that financial institutions employing retired government officials as board members held more employees than those that did not. Thus, Amakudari likely produces the cozy relationship between regulators and the regulated.

Asset Price Declines and Real Estate Market Illiquidity: Evidence from Japanese Land Values

We develop an overlapping generations model of the real estate market in which search frictions and a debt overhang combine to generate price persistence and illiquidity. Illiquidity stems from heterogeneity in agent real estate valuations. The variance of agent valuations determines how quickly prices adjust following a shock to fundamentals. We examine the predictions of the model by studying price depreciation in Japanese land values subsequent to the 1990 stock market crash. Commercial land values fell much more quickly than residential land values. As we would posit that the variance of buyer valuations would be greater for residential real estate than for commercial real estate, this model matches the Japanese experience.