This book is about the roles that financial institutions are expected to play for revitalizing regional economies in Japan, which face several serious problems such as a rapidly aging population as well as a sharp decline in population. The Japanese government expects regional financial institutions to contribute to that revitalization. Actually, Japanese regional financial institutions have made various efforts to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase their profitability and sustainability. However, the efforts have not yet produced adequate outcomes.
To help clarify the reasons for the failures and to offer policy recommendations, the authors used four questionnaires to conduct surveys. They sent the questionnaires to the headquarters of regional financial institutions for Chapter 1 and to the staffs of regional financial institutions for Chapter 2. The government revised the Credit Guarantee System Reform Act in 2017 to promote financial institutionsand credit guarantee corporations in order to proactively support SMEs, so in Chapter 3 the aims of the revised act are explained. Chapter 4 is based on a survey of startups that used the public credit guarantee. Finally, Chapter 5 is based on another, different questionnaire that was sent to SMEs to find out why they failed to improve their risk management and how financial institutions can help them to prepare for disasters. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, these questionnaire studies on regional revitalization have not been carried out elsewhere, making this book unique.
Nobuyoshi Yamori is Professor of the Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University. He was born in Shiga Prefecture and graduated from Shiga University in 1986. He received an MA degree at Kobe University in 1988 and a PhD in economics at Nagoya University in 1996. Before becoming a professor of Kobe University in 2014, he taught at Himeji Dokkyo University and Nagoya University. Currently, he is also appointed as a visiting professor of Nagoya University and a member of the Financial System Council of Japan's Financial Services Agency. He has published many academic articles in international journals such as Economics Letters, the Journal of Banking and Finance, the Journal of Financial Intermediation, the Journal of Financial Research, and the Journal of Financial Services Research.
Yoshihiro Asai is Associate Professor of the Faculty of Commerce, Meiji University. He was born in Nagoya in 1977 and graduated from Nagoya University in 2000. He received MA degrees at Nagoya University and the State University of New York at Buffalo and obtained a PhD in economics at Nagoya University in 2006. Before joining Meiji University in 2012, he taught at Josai University. He has published academic articles in journals such as the Journal of Insurance Issues, the International Journal of Business, the Journal of Applied Research in Finance, and iBusiness.
Masao Ojima is a researcher at the Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University. He teaches at Himeji Dokkyo University. His hometown is Osaka, in Osaka Prefecture, and he graduated from Osaka City University in 1975. He received an MA degree in 2015 and a PhD in economics in 2018 at Kobe University. Before becoming a researcher at Kobe University in 2018, he had a career at a city bank and a steel company. His professional field is regional finance and regional financial institutions. He has published academic articles in journals, such as the Journal of Household Economics, and in the RIEB Discussion Paper Series.
Kei Tomimura is Associate Professor of the Faculty of Business Administration, Aichi University. He was born in Okinawa Prefecture and graduated from Shinshu University. He received an MA degree and a PhD in economics at Nagoya University. Before joining Aichi University in 2011, he taught at Nagoya University. He has published academic articles in journals such as the International Journal of Finance and Economics, the Journal of Economics and Business, Applied Economics Letters, Banks and Bank Systems, and iBusiness.
Koji Yoneda is Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Economics, Kumamoto Gakuen University. He received a PhD in economics from Nagoya University in 2009. Before becoming Assistant Professor of Kumamoto Gakuen University in 2015, he worked at the Economic Research Center, School of Economics, Nagoya University. He also worked at the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, as a part-time lecturer from 2015 to 2018. He has published academic articles in journals such as
Applied Economics Letters,
Empirical Economics Letters, and the
Japanese Journal of Labour Studies. His research interests include the labor market for new graduates, personnel management in financial institutions, and efficiency analysis of public hospitals.
