Ishihara apologizes over struggling bank for 1st time

Wednesday 26th March, 09:11 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

Latest 15 of 18 Total Comments Show All

kagunlapell at 11:30 AM JST - 26th March

Somebody give him a katana right now and let him commit seppuku honorably, as his friend, Mishima! Show to the world your highly superior Japaneseness!
DubyaKiller at 12:10 PM JST - 26th March

And it is the Metropolitan Assembly's democratic duty to the taxpayers of Tokyo to say no to his request for capital.
romulus3 at 12:21 PM JST - 26th March

this scandal is terrible. staff were told to allow loans worse than subprime X 10, and ask no questions. its stinks of organized crime and is white collar brazen theft at its worst. there needs to be a massive investigation and court apperaences and prison terms. disgusting!
Ultradude at 04:24 PM JST - 26th March

This guy is a putz of amazing proportion. What sucks for us is we pay the taxes but can't vote...I'm sure quite a few gaijin pay a lot more than the average Taro, too.
Silenced at 05:09 PM JST - 26th March

The bank should be allowed to go bankrupted.
eastokyo at 09:41 PM JST - 26th March

Looks like the 40 billion will be approved, distributed to struggling small and medium-size business, and then most of it never seen again. Ishihara said he will take the responsibility for that. And then he will be voted in again (if he wants it) cos the cowardly public envy the way he speaks what's on his mind. Mind you the extra capital will be just over 10,000 yen in tax per Tokyo resident. That's the kind of sum many (but not all) will just shrug their shoulders at and utter that marvellous phrase of resignation - しょうがないねー。
Patrick Smash at 11:14 PM JST - 26th March

And across the board the political parties support the 40 billion yen bail out. Do these people never ask some blindingly obvious questions:

Who decided to start this "bank"? Who approved it? Who fronted the money? Who assigned the board? Who was responsible for the loans? Who chose the outsourcing company that did the "research"?

Still, they elected the fool, let them pay for his stupidity, and then let's wait for Ishihara's Olympic funds to go walkies.
kimigano at 10:12 AM JST - 27th March

Patrick Smash,

They know the answers to all those questions, and knew them quite some time ago.

But they are powerless do to anything about it.
Patrick Smash at 10:58 AM JST - 27th March

Kimigano, yes I know. Tokyo is a dictatorship. Ishihara stole around 20 million yen and gave it to family members before the last election, and they re-elected him.

If he stood for Prime Minister he would get elected, and that is enough for cross-party allowance of his criminal activity. No one is brave enough to stand up to this man; he is probably the single most powerful person in the country, and is rotten to the core.

There is no way this should be portrayed as a policy that went wrong. This was Ishihara from start to finish, and it is unbelievable that he can get away with this. Well, not really unbelievable, that's the really sad bit.
Wottock_Hunt at 01:14 PM JST - 27th March

And, from the other story on JT today:

"an additional 40 billion yen for Shinginko Tokyo on condition that the metropolitan government strengthen its surveillance on the heavily indebted bank and spend no more taxpayers’ money on it".

But, er, that 40 billion yen is taxpayers' money. But never mind, he said sorry so stop asking questions.

Questions such as to the Yakuza connections of this bank. This is nothing more or less than the greatest heist this country has ever seen.

Criminal proceedings should be brought immediately - but they won't. And why?

Because look who's in charge of the local governemnt that approved this bail-out.
Patrick Smash at 01:29 PM JST - 27th March

I am still struggling to belive this story. In most countries this is simply not possible. Ken Livingstone in London would not be allowed to open a bank, appoint a board (with no banking experience) lose the equivalent of 28.5 billion yen by lending to companies that he chose to lend to, then ask London taxpayers for a bail out to the tune of 40 billion yen etc. etc. It is simply incredible, and this article should be in the crime section.

I also read that another 70% of this bank's "assets" could well be unrecoverable. That is another 200 billion yen that won't come back, and which Tokyo taxpayers are going to be liable for. But as wottock said, he apologized without accepting any responsibility for a criminal disaster of his own making, so that's okay.
some14some at 05:50 PM JST - 27th March

why blame Ishihara when today's so called 'mega' banks did the same or perhaps more after the bust of bubble economy. Nothing wrong, nobody was held responsible for trillions of tax payers money then. In short, Ishihara just followed their foot steps and there is no guarantee that some other bank(s) might not do the same.
Wottock_Hunt at 09:03 PM JST - 27th March

some14some, that difference is the simple fact that Ishihara was told by the Ministry of Finance that he had neither the competence nor the authority to start a bank with taxpayers' money and a board of directors without a day's experience in banking between them.

The MoF tried to prevent a repeat of the fiasco caused by irresponsible lending, but Ishihara decided - accurately, it would appear - that he is above the law.

Result, lots of very happy Yaks and fellow old boys from Blinky's university, lots of taxpayers paying through the nose with the imminent consumption tax hike to pay his largesse.

In any other country - bar a military dictatorship, there would be a mob outside his office with pitchforks and blazing torches, baying for his blood.

But here we are, and shoganai.
Patrick Smash at 12:05 AM JST - 28th March

some14some, I'll add to that private banks were propped up to protect the life savings of citizens. Ishihara decided to open his own bank with taxpayers money (having been told not to) and personally decided to give taxpayers money to his cohorts in the full knowledge that this money would not be returned. It was basically given to right-wing Yakuza-run midsize businesses, and the decisions on who received money were completely Ishihara's. This isn't the bad luck of the bubble, and how to readjust; he only opened this thing three years ago, and is already the recipient of a 40 billion yen bail out, plus 28 billion definitely lost, plus a further 200 billion probably lost.

Just before he was reelected, it is common knowledge that Ishihara gave 200 million yen of Tokyo taxpayers money to family members, and no one blinked an eye. So long as only the Tokyoites who were stupid enough to elect a known criminal have to pay this bill, which will go up and up of course since around 80% of the money is lost not 10%, I really couldn't care less. If they want to leave him in power and give him a truly Olympian purse, well more fool them.
some14some at 06:40 AM JST - 28th March

WT+PS: both of you are absolutely right. As WT says : In any other country - bar a military dictatorship, there would be a mob outside his office with pitchforks and blazing torches, baying for his blood. But here we are, and shoganai. And my point was 'shouganai', this single word has sunk Japan to this level !