Press Conference by the Minister for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

April 1 , 2003

A revised Cabinet Office ordinance concerning disclosure of business enterprises' conditions and other matters was issued yesterday and was put into effect today. I'd like to tell about the ordinance concerning the Program for Financial Revival. According to the revision, the representative of a corporation submitting its financial statement report or the like may attach to it a document confirming the accuracy of its contents.

The revision will apply to the financial statement reports for the fiscal year ending March 2004, and the subsequent years in principle. The Work Schedule of the Program for Financial Revival, however, prescribes major banks' implementation one year earlier, from the fiscal year ending March 2003 onward. In accordance with the revised Cabinet Office ordinance, the Director - General of the Supervisory Bureau requested major banks to implement it, starting with their financial statement reports for the financial year ending March 2003.

Q.

The deposit payoff system was to go into effect totally today, April 1, under the original schedule. But it was postponed. Depositors did not get into a panic and remained relatively calm. So, the postponement seems to have had a certain level of beneficial effect, judging from the present situation in Iraq and the stock price level in this March. On the other hand, however, a big financial administration task was carried forward. What do you think?

A.

Well, the decision on the postponement may be evaluated variously. But our primary intention is to overcome the problem of non-performing loans in two years or so. For that purpose, the Program for Financial Revival was worked out, with attention directed to varied issues from different viewpoints. To nip the public's and depositors' anxiety in the bud and keep the financing for small and medium businesses smoothly, the postponement was decided on as a kind of safety valve. Of course, we did not foresee the current conflict with Iraq at that time. I feel that the postponement had a certain braking effect, since factors of uncertainty have been fast increasing lately. But this is merely a transitional point, and as you have just pointed out, we still have a very big task yet to be accomplished. This, I think, is a task to be accomplished by the financial authorities and by the banks. It is also a roadblock in the way of our entire national economy. Uncertainty hangs heavily over us now, but the Program for Financial Revival, we believe, is steadily going on, and we wish to overcome the current huge difficulties and attain our initial objective and policy goal by some means or other.