East Asia’s “economic miracle” in the post-World War II period was predicated upon a number of factors, such as the region’s export-led growth model, but critically it also depended on an assured supply of capital to finance business investment.
One source of such finance was bank loans, the supply and direction of which can be officially influenced by various means rather than being chiefly market-determined. Even today, bank loans account for most of the business financing in Japan, the…
