, Columnists
Japan's Banks Reinvent Misery
The yen's strength, deepening negative yields and international exposure are growing risks.
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Japan's banks have reinvented themselves: In just four years, they've found a whole new way to be miserable.
In the summer of 2012, Japan watchers were nervously drawing parallels with southern European banks' holdings of their governments' collapsing bonds. The anxiety wasn't baseless. Back then, the five "city" banks -- Mizuho, Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui, Resona and Saitama Resona -- owned the equivalent of $1.4 trillion in Japanese government bonds. Throw in other domestically licensed banks, and the figure rose to $2 trillion. A big spike in yield could doom the financial system.