PM backs beleaguered Takenaka on bank reforms

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi threw his weight behind his besieged financial tsar yesterday as voices against proposed banking industry reforms grew louder and markets wrestled with policy confusion.

A day after Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka delayed the release of a report on cleaning up the banking system, no one was any the wiser about the fate of plans to speed up the disposal of bad loans.

The delay, in the face of opposition from within Mr Koizumi's own party, cast doubt on his leadership only three weeks after he gave Mr Takenaka the task of digging out the banking system from beneath 52 trillion yen (about HK$3.25 trillion) of non-performing debt. more