Yamato Life Insurance Co President Takeo Nakazono, center, and other execs bow at a news conference Friday in this TV image.

Mid-sized insurer Yamato Life goes bust, affecting 1,000 employees

Saturday 11th October, 02:47 AM JST

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Dogdog at 08:40 PM JST - 10th October

The Japanese banks purged their bad debts before they went out of business. No money from the G7.

Japan purged its banking debt by making them public debt which helped to contribute to Japan having a public debt burden which is almost 170 per cent of its GDP and already the highest in the industrialised world. The amount is equivalent to about Y7.24 million for every Japanese.

Way to go..........
YangYong at 08:42 PM JST - 10th October

The Bank of Japan even managed to make a profit from the whole affair, through selling the shares it bought at the time for more than it paid for them. Read and learn. It worked. The proof is in this pudding. At least they still have zeros on their debt clock. Waaaaaaaaaaaay to go. (Get it?)
meanmutha at 08:45 PM JST - 10th October

this thread and postings is a good one... keep it going guys.
LFRAgain at 08:48 PM JST - 10th October

Time to get out !

And go where, exactly?
YangYong at 08:52 PM JST - 10th October

LFRA: Commodities. Diamonds and Gold especially, if its capital you wish to hold on to. Gold has never lost its relative value in thousands of years. If it's mute to you --the 'wealth' gig-- try a small holding in Alaska, Siberia or other far reaches north or south.
YangYong at 09:01 PM JST - 10th October

And the attack on the Japanese --for this Insurers failure-- is a fundamental mistake on your part because

Yamato’s financial profile took blows from losses from investments in subprime mortgages-related bonds and other securities whose prices have recently plunged amid the financial crisis

i.e. they took advice and got involved in this US mess. That's how they came to fail. Japanese banks have kept their exposure low, if not at nil, --Aozora and Shinsei aside-- their --the Japaneses's-- model is not laying on the canvas and will continue to remain standing provided the engine of Japanese growth - its booming export sector - continues to sell to the rest of the world.
YangYong at 09:07 PM JST - 10th October

It posted be4 being finished...

...continue to remain standing provided the engine of Japanese growth - its booming export sector - continues to sell to the rest of the world. AND there in lies the rub.
ozellis at 09:11 PM JST - 10th October

Barfly's comments, polluted by irrational nationalism, are ridiculous. When Americans start making products that the world wants, they will succeed. Unfortunately, like the Japanese in the late 80's, they assumed that economies could be sustained through financial chemistry. The only difference between the Japanese in the late 80's and the Americans now is that the Japanese never lost the plot with the manufacturing end of it. Take out the financial engineering component of the US economy and there is no one left in the pointy end. Everyone is flying cattle-class. Prepare to be slaughtered.
usaexpat at 11:28 PM JST - 10th October

Well we're in a worldwide meltdown as everyone should have guessed. Here's my prediction: the last time this happened in the States it led to people dumping money into realestate (undervalued at the time) and creating a bubble which then brought about this crisis 8 years later (bad mortgages, risky deals, people thought home values could go nowhere but up). Look for a repeat, as soon as credit markets can be freed up and the forclosures are auctioned off people will be buying back into housing which after a 25% deflation is once again undervalued. I'm glad what little I have is in realestate and not stocks. All hail the next bubble somewhere around 2011.
Good_Jorb at 11:38 PM JST - 10th October

And go where, exactly?

Away from globalization and more towards regionalization. China(as well as the rest of North East Asia) have enough resources to focus inward and build up their domestic markets, as is already happen (America recently has been the second most important, as China is Japan top importer). After Japanese companies with American financial instruments, sell them of or go bankrupt, like Yamoto Life, there will less investment from Japanese Companies in America. This will happen in many countries and the resulting outcome will be years of reorganization. Which will see America and some others lose a significant amount of thier equity, and the world push closer to a more even wealth distribution and some countries become lesser versions of themselves. As some of those nutty finance people say, you should never invest in a dog with fleas.
KitsuneYoukai at 11:51 PM JST - 10th October

Bad decisions on all areas in all markets. If another country would have been the first to recognize this and spoken up something similar to now would have happened. It just so happens that the US spoke up first. You think all other countries were not already seeing the signs of this well over a year ago???? Well, keep dreaming because they did. My guess is to avoid something as serious as the Depression, the US decided to limit the blow. Exports/imports and buying/selling is fundamental to countries supporting each other while making their economies grow thus a world market was creatde. People need to get a grip, not panic, allow the right people to handle this and be positive. Things will certainly worse before they get better but it sure beats a World Deprssion. Things like this can never be avoided; it is cyclical. Once we're out it will begin to get better. It's the nature of the market everyone takes risk while investing; some people will lose and at the same time others will benefit. Japan will be no different.
GG2141 at 12:02 AM JST - 11th October

All the blame for this current disaster sits squarely in the head of GW Bush and is incompetent band of idiots. America has been raped of its future and robbed blind by the current administration. The US is so unbelievably in debt now that the next administration will have a hard time raising money for food stamps, let alone a healthcare system.

Anyone who votes Republican is a fool. (a bit off topic, but related)
slappayuki at 02:11 AM JST - 11th October

the engine of Japanese growth - its booming export sector - continues to sell to the rest of the world

Export growth is slowing. It is hardly booming.
romulus3 at 03:31 AM JST - 11th October

Bento,

Yes. your lunch box is the perfect place to keep money.
taikan at 03:50 AM JST - 11th October

In the short term, the key to whether other Japanese financial institutions are affected in a way similar to Yamato will be the nature of the debt instruments in which those institutions invested. If a significant portion of the debt instruments in which they invested are backed by American real estate or were issued by companies that are overleveraged, then those financial institutions will have problems. If not, then financial institutions in Japan will be able to withstand the initial round of financial company failures. In the long term, the health of Japanese financial institutions will depend on whether the Japanese companies to which they have extended credit are able to weather the current financial storm.