JPY

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.

Proof that banking reform in Japan is becoming a reality came yesterday with the flotation of Shinsei, which ended its first day of trading in Tokyo at a 58 per cent premium to its issue price.

There were no sellers of the rescued bank's shares for the entire morning trading session. The shares eventually closed at Y827 after an issue price of Y525, taking the bank's market capitalisation through the trillion yen mark to Y1,124bn.