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The article discusses bankers' warning about the impact of possible forced sales from Japan on the sovereign, supranational and agency (SSA) sector. It describes the role of Japanese institutions in several SSA deals, such as the Japanese government's purchase of more than 20 percent of the European Financial Stability Facility's debut issue in January 2011. Some financial analysts feel that Japanese investors will stop buying paper in the short term after the March 2011 earthquake in Japan.

The article reports that Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group's dollar and sterling tier one offering has concluded a stellar year for Japanese financial institutions in the capital markets, particularly in the bank capital arena. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group raised $2.65 billion of tier one debt via $1.65 billion and £500 million tranches. Daiwa SMBC, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley led the deal, which was lapped up by investors in search of paper offering high yields.

Reports on a convertible bond placed by Merrill Lynch for delivery company Fukuyama Transporting Co. in September 2005. Information on a contingent conversion structure used in the deal; Face value of the bonds; Percentage of the paper that was allocated to investors in Japan.

Presents news briefs about the international money market as of June 2000. Commercial paper program of Rabobank Australia; Increase of the fiscal deficit of Japan; Financing needs of the Philippines.

The article discusses certain issues related to the Electronically Recorded Claims System, a book-entry system for monetary claims introduced in Japan on June 27, 2007. The system creates a type of monetary claim that will be created and assigned only by entry in the electronic registry maintained by the recording institution. The system is developed according to a law formulated by the Japan Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). The law provides the creation, assignment, extinguishment and other treatment of electronically recorded claims and for the businesses and supervision of the electronic claims recording institution.

The article deals with the challenges experienced by the bond market in Japan in 2006. The implementation of the Japanese Book Entry Transfer System (Bets) prompted fear that the U.S. tax authorities would cease to define Japanese bonds as bearer ones. Japanese investors keen to take foreign credit in domestic bond format had some supply from firms such as Kaupthing Bank and Petrobras. The Japanese bond market has remained a consistent and reliable source of funding.

The article focuses on international bonds issued by Japanese companies and government agencies in the domestic yen bond market in 2006. An obstacle to overseas issuance was the Prospectus Directive of the European Union (EU). The stabilisation of spreads and return of liquidity allowed issues by large firms in the domestic market. The issues by Japan Finance Corp. for Municipal Enterprises (JFM) and Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) proved that offshore yen market was attractive.

The article focuses on the participation of several Japanese banks in the global debt capital market. The high volume of regulatory capital funding was driven by the repayment of government funds by the banks for the bailouts from the 1998 financial crisis. Shinsei Bank sold a dual tranche tier one capital issue. The bank issuance market is coming to the end of the racpitalisation cycle according to Simon Yoo, managing director and co-head of the financial institutions at Nikko Citigroup.

The article reports on the decision of Japanese credit rating agency Ratings & Investment Information (R&I) to upgrade Spain from AA+ to AAA. R&I might not be the most visible agency in the euro zone, but having an institution of high esteem in such an economically powerful country as Japan give its highest rating can be no bad thing. In upgrading Spain, R&I recognised the rapid and above European Union average growth of Spain.

The article discusses the potential of the hybrid capital market for corporate and financial institutions in Japan. Funding officials at Japan's leading banks say that the levels that they can achieve by placing tier one domestically are clearly more attractive than those that can be achieved in international markets. According to Gen Nakahara, director, debt capital markets at Merrill Lynch, most bank hybrid tier one issuance is sold to the global investor base.

The article considers the participation of U.S. financial institutions in the Japanese Samurai bond market in 2005. The market has become the preferred market for big foreign issuers, chief among them is the Ford Motor Credit Corp. (FMCC), which sold a ¥ 160 billion in February. The FMCC issue proved that the market is receptive to credit and to large issuers. Aside from the automobile company issuer, other issuers in the market are European sovereigns, Asian credits and financial issuers.

Discusses the growth of residential mortgage-back securitisation (RMBS) in the asset-backed securitisation market in Japan in 2004. Factors that contributed to the recovery of the Japanese securitisation market; Information on several RMBS transactions of banks in September 2004; Implementation of a securitisation programme for loans of small and medium sized enterprises by Japan Finance Corp. for Small Businesses on July 1, 2004.

Reports on how securitization helps accelerate the process of disintermediation in the Japanese financial system. Significance of the arrival of unsecured consumer finance assets; Key factor for the securitization market's growth; Ways to achieve growth, according to Takeo Sumino, head of global merchant banking planning at Nomura in Tokyo; Overview of the vehicle Shinsei Funding Four used by Shinsei Bank; Effect of the collapse of stock markets and the growth of bankruptcies on banks.

Discusses the prospects for the Samurai bond market in Japan in 2000. Factors which led to the decline in the demand for Samurai issues in 1997; Impact of the increase in investment activity among institutional and retail investors on the market; Expectations of the bankers in Tokyo on the effect of government borrowing on the interest rates.

The article reports on the 16 billion Japanese yen of short dated paper raised by Middle Eastern bank Emirates NBD from three private deals in June 2015, when it took advantage of growing demands among Japanese investors for Middle Eastern bonds.

Points the opportunities open to Japan while facing economic crisis. How the crisis affected the financial industry of the country; Benefits the country will get in restructuring the economy and implementing reforms for market deregulation.

The article discusses a report by Standard & Poor's Corp. on the resurgence in demand for samurai bonds, yen-denominated bonds issued in Japan by overseas entities, among institutional and retail investors in Japan. The samurai market benefits from a diverse issuer base and the perception that it is more efficient and transparent than the domestic corporate bond market. In addition, high liquidity, strong demand for paper among investors, and the search for attractive yields also bode well for the samurai market. Speculative-grade companies from the United States are predicted to be the next big wave of samurai bond issuers.

This article reports that International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) launched a Japanese-yen-denominated bond in the Japan capital market that is lead managed by Merrill Lynch and Daiwa SB Capital Markets. The corporate debt is priced at five basis points over Libor and carries a semi-annual coupon of 0.62 percent. The week of June 16, 2000 witnessed 195 billion yen in samurai issuance from IBM (140 billion yen), Household Finance (15 billion yen), and Fiat Finance and Trade (40 billion yen). Market conditions are favorable for the following reasons: foreign corporations' need for yen funding, high liquidity, the absence of domestic corporate paper, and appetite for credit.

The article reports on a hybrid capital security deal with ¥31 billion 50-year non-call five bond launched by Aeon Co. in Japan. The bond has two tranches with coupon step-ups of 100 basis points in year 10. It is said that the main objective of Aeon for launching the hybrid transaction is to expand the duration of its debt and improve its financial status.

Focuses on the progress of the securitization market in Japan in 2004. Issuance by Mizuho Securities of residential mortgage-backed securities; Domination by consumer credit companies of the asset-backed securities market; Emergence of the collateral debt obligation market.

This article reports that Japan is finally trying to meet the demands of the business community for access to more lawyers and a true one-stop-shop for domestic and international advice. By Tom Goodwin, head of trade policy at the British Embassy in Tokyo. Much of Japans legal system, and particularly the Civil Code, remained unchanged into the 21st century. The Judicial Reform Councilstarted the momentum with its June 2001 paper that called on the government to implement far-reaching reform of the judicial system. The changes now under way herald a big step forward for the legal and business communities, as well as for the flexibility of the Japanese economy.

Reports on the move of the Republic of Italy to trade in Japan's yen market. Factors which influenced the move of the Italian government; Total amount issued by the government in the yen market; Lead managers of the bond; Expectations on the bonds issued by the government.

Reports on the status of the Samurai bond market in Japan as of November 2003. Factors that contributed to the decline in the performance of the market; Impact of the Uridashi market on the Samurai bond market; Evidence of the cost competitiveness of the Samurai bond market. INSET: Top tier issuers find niche in structures.

Examines the state of the domestic corporate bond market in Japan as of November 2003. Risk and anomalies in the market that affect the economy; Implication of the issuance of vast quantities of government bonds; Factor that will determine corporate spreads; Reaction of investors to the performance of the bond market.

Reports on the demand for Samurai bonds of Japan as of November 2003. Factors contributing to the lack of demand for the bonds; Emergence of the Uridashi market at the expense of the Samurai market; Participation of Croatia and Korea in the Samurai market. INSET: Top tier issuers find niche in structures.

Reports on the lack of productivity from the Japanese domestic bond market as of November 2003. Reason behind the lack of productivity; Importance of the progress of reform in the commercial banking sector for determining corporate spreads; Failure of the market to reflect economic realities.

As part of the Japanese government's securities market reform, amendments to the Cabinet Order and the Cabinet Office Ordinances relating to the Securities and Exchange Law took effect on April 01, 2003. The amendments require disclosures to the Japanese public securities market to be more informative and credible. Changes to corporate disclosure require the company to disclose business risk factors, management's discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations and corporate governance conditions in its securities registration statement and annual securities report. In addition, a representative of the directors of a company may voluntarily attach a paper in which the representative confirms the appropriateness of the statements made in a securities registration statement, an annual securities report and a semi-annual securities report to such documents. Private placements to a small number of investors may solicit no more than 49 investors. Before the amendments, all solicitations to qualified institutional investors were included in calculating the 49 investors. But after the amendments, solicitations to qualified institutional investors are not included in the calculation if the number of qualified institutional investors is less than 250 and certain transfer restriction requirements are satisfied.

Presents news briefs on bond issues by several banks in Asia and Australia as of October 26, 2001. Size of the fixed and floating rate note issued by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia; Preparations by the Korea Development Bank for its global bond issue; Launching of a collateralized loan obligation by Shinsei Bank.

Reports on the reopening of Japan's Samurai market for foreign borrowers in 1999 after a decline of several years. Demand from Japanese investors for foreign credits; Factors contributing to the wide range of established market credits; Expectation on the market for the year 2000.

European Investment Bank this week became the first SSA name to sell long-dated kangaroo paper to Japanese investors following the start of their new financial year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on Ryoei Saito, the former honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co. Ltd., who is awaiting trial for allegedly paying Y100 million in bribes to a government official. The central bank of Japan, the Bank of Japan, the Ministry of Finance of Japan and the public prosecutors who are fighting the case against Saito, maintain that Saito is one of those who were responsible for Japan's bubble economy in stock and property markets and the subsequent collapse of the Japanese financial system. According to the author, Saito has long been viewed as a figure who has flouted traditional Japanese business and social practices and, in the process, earned the wrath of the nation's conservative ruling elite. It is worth mentioning that Saito is unlikely to face serious punishment for his alleged crime. This is because in Japan, symbolic victims of the bureaucrats' purge have been given less than severe sentences, despite extensive defamation in the official press and at the hands of prosecutors. INSET: Searching for scapegoats..

Masato Iida of Shiga International Patent Office explains how the inventive step obstacle can be cleared when preparing a patent application and presents several case studies based on combination therapy inventions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains that despite the deterioration in the yen basis swap, the Japanese market remains an attractive pool of liquidity for issuers with large borrowing needs. The collapse of Lehman Brothers caused the yen market to seize up at the end of 2008, but borrowers have been delighted to see how, in 2009, the market not only returned, but became a safe haven for triple-A rated issuers. Six new issues in Samurai format have priced so far this year, totaling ¥470 billion, while 23 issuers priced ¥579 billion of new Euroyen bonds.

The article reports that higher rated global financial institutions from Europe and Australasia have supplanted the dominant U.S. issuers of Samurai bonds. Japanese investors, brimming with a new-found confidence in their credit skills, are in the process picking up spreads far excess of comparable domestic credits. One of the biggest changes in the Samurai market in 2008 has been the arrival of Australian financial institutions in force.

The article presents the views of several triple-A bond issuers on the Japanese capital markets cited at the Global Issuers' Roundtable of the periodical "EruoWeek." Richard Anund, executive director and head of funding at Svensk Exportkredit (SEK), stressed the importance of the medium term note (MTN) market to his firm. Monika Seitelberger, director of international finance at Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OKB), said that the bank was not active in the MTN market in 2006.

Focuses on the offshore Japanese yen market as of December 2004. Volatility of the offshore yen market according to Steve Apted, head of syndicate in Daiwa SMBC Europe; Issuance of Japanese government bond (JGB) by financial firms GECC and AIG; Impact of the issuance of JGB to Italy on the yen market.

The Japanese government has been improving both the information flow and accessibility for investors in its public and private capital markets, in line with global best practices. Recent disclosure reforms in Japan consist of two trends--increasing informative disclosure in public capital markets and enlarging private capital markets that do not require a disclosure obligation. It is necessary to require disclosure contents to be more substantive and credible for the general investors in the public capital markets, to facilitate participation. In the private capital markets where participants are limited to mainly professional investors, an issuers disclosure obligation is not necessarily required because professional investors are usually able to obtain useful investment information and make decisions at their own risk regardless.

Discusses the state of Japan's international capital markets. Action taken by several government guaranteed issuers during the decline of Japan premium; How Japan premium stabilized after its decline; Decrease in the supply of European sovereign debt.

The article discusses the factors that are pushing the dematerialization of trade documentation forward in Asia. Banks and corporates based in the continent have been able to adopt fundamental change, delivering levels of automation unparalleled even by Western counterparts. They have gradually adopted electronic documents for presentation and crucially realized the use of an electronic bill of lading. These trends are now recognized in China, Korea, and Japan.

French banks have been frequenting the Samurai market all year, and the latest trade from Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM) this week offered Japanese accounts a rare chance to invest in the senior preferred format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the recovery of Japan's mineral industries from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. The natural disaster claimed over 15,000 lives and destroyed homes, industry, and infrastructure. The iodine industry in Chile, the U.S., and Japan responded to the disaster by increasing production. Iodine prices also increased by 165 percent.

The article looks at the impact of the March 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami on overseas suppliers to Japan's industrial minerals markets. The country's mineral consuming industries include cement, ceramics, and high-technology components. It is noted that overseas suppliers are monitoring the state of Japan's manufacturing industries affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

The article reports on the decision of Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Company and Brazil's Bradesco Asset Management to set up a mutual fund that will invest in Brazilian bonds. The move is intended to tap the growing pool of Japanese retail investors demanding Brazilian real-denominated paper. The launch is considered timely as the Brazilian market is attracting renewed interest from retail investors in both its fixed-income and equity markets.

This section offers news briefs related to stock markets. In early February 2008, three Indian corporates, namely, Wockhardt Hospitals, real estate firm Emaar MGF and SVEC Constructions have decided to pull out their initial public offering due to lack of demand for their paper among every class of investor. Exchange-traded funds backed by physical gold are to be launched on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan, following the August 2007 debut on the Osaka exchange of exchange-traded funds backed by bonds linked to the price of the precious metal.

The article presents updates on the capital market as of February 2012. The 2012 medium term note (MTN) funding effort of the Autonomous Community of Aragon was launched with a long dated note paying a coupon of more than 7 percent. Japan Finance Organisation for Municipalities has a sold a quartet of five year notes to investors in the region. A 25 million U.S. dollar floating rate note was launched by Daiwa Capital Markets.

The article offers information on companies which have won awards in the field of securitization. It mentions that Reserve Bank of New Zealand has issued a consultation paper proposing that New Zealand covered bonds should either be standardized on the structured model developed for the company BNZ. It informs that the company Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings has financed three billion debt to a property trust formed by a Japanese Real Estate Investment Trust (J-Reit)

The article reports that the Disclosure System Working Group of Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) has issued a report proposing to increase the variety of disclosure documents which a foreign company may submit in English language instead of Japanese. It mentions that the system will help in increasing the number of foreign entities raising funds in Japan. It informs that disclosure system has launched exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to attract foreign entities to Japan's capital markets.

The article reports on the impact of repercussions from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on momentum from the primary collateralized loan obligation (CLO) market in March 2011. Bankers asserted that market players are reluctant to announce firm pricing. It mentions the role of institutional investors in Japan in the primary CLO market. Also noted is the effect of the earthquake on secondary paper.

The article focuses on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) as the benchmark domestic bond issuer of Japan and the largest issuer among the local governments as of 2009. Shinichi Tanaka, Bond Section director at the Bureau of Finance, expresses his views on the finances and financing of Tokyo. He talks about the impact of the global downturn on revenues and the economic prospects of Tokyo. According to Tanaka, he reassures investors that Tokyo was well positioned in terms of finances.

The article reports that two Japanese securitisation deals have concluded, despite the market being quieter than for many years. Deutsche Bank sold a ¥21.9 billion (bn) securitisation issue backed by a diversified portfolio of office properties, mostly in Tokyo, but also in six other Japanese cities. Shinsei Securities arranged the almost ¥403bn securitisation of consumer finance loans. The J-Core Trust Certificates issue was sliced into four tranches, rated triple-A, double-A, single-A and A−.