August 14, 2008
Financial Services Agency

Financial Markets Strategy Team issues its Second Report
—Toward an Open Country with Financial Strength—

On June 12, 2008, the Financial Markets Strategy Team issued its Second Report - Toward an Open Country with Financial Strength.

The Financial Markets Strategy Team is an advisory group established by Yoshimi Watanabe, Minister for Financial Services. It has conducted intensive discussions, totaling nine sessions, since it issued the first report on November 30, 2007. The discussions have focused on the subprime mortgage problem that has become widespread in the global financial markets.

The second report follows up on the situation of the subprime mortgage problem that has become more serious and widespread since the publication of the first report. It tries to identify and assess the measures and policy response taken to date, and points out the issues to which Japan should pay due attention with regard to future developments in the global financial markets.

Please refer to Attachment 1 for a brief summary of the report and Attachment 2 for the main text.