"Industrial Organization of the Banking Industry and the Role of Banks in Industrial and Corporate Financing: Banks and Firms in Prewar Japan " (in Japanese)

This paper selectively surveys the literature on the financial history of prewar Japan, focusing on the role of banks in industrial and corporate financing and the characteristics of the industrial organization in the banking sector, and adds some supplementary analyses. The banking sector in prewar Japan is characterized by the multilayered structure and the close relationship between banks and non-financial firms, called “organ bank†relationship. Whereas the organ bank relationship enabled related firms with lower profitability and smaller internal fund to borrow money more easily, it tended to hurt the profitability of banks and stability of the banking system. In the 1920s, when the banking system became unstable, a large wave of bank exits through mergers and closures occurred. Over this exit wave, the organ bank relationship waned through selection of unsound banks and change in the governance structure of banks. Meanwhile, this bank exit wave changed the fund allocation in local financial markets, which in turn affected the local industries.