Post-Quake Stimulus from Japanese Banks

Takao Suzuki was chairing a board meeting on the fourth floor of Daito Bank headquarters when the earthquake struck. As windows shattered and the floor shook, he dashed for the door, opening it to secure an escape route.

Less than a month later, as radiation continued to leak from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant 38 miles away, Suzuki still had a sense of urgency. He dispatched three bank directors around the region to lend cash as the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years threatened to drive off companies. "We must avoid an exodus of people and businesses," says Suzuki, 57, the bank's president, at his office in Koriyama, where windows cracked by the quake are held together with tape.