April 15 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese banks' losses from subprime mortgages have been small compared with those of financial institutions in other countries, central bank Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said.

``Because investment in these types of products was small to begin with, the losses have been very small compared with financial institutions overseas,'' Shirakawa told lawmakers in Tokyo today.

Japanese banks have accounted for a small fraction of the $245 billion of global writedowns and credit losses announced since the beginning of 2007.

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan's second-largest bank by revenue, last week said it lost 565 billion yen ($5.6 billion) on mortgage securities, the most reported by an Asian company. Swiss bank UBS AG has written off $38 billion of assets since the credit squeeze started in July.

Shirakawa reiterated that the economy is slowing for the time being because of higher energy costs and that board members will set policy by examining both upside and downside risks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lily Nonomiya in Tokyo at lnonomiya@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 14, 2008 22:37 EDT