Policy measures and reduced short-term risks buoyed markets. BIS Quarterly Review, December 2012 pp.1-10

Bank-Firm Relationships and Security Analyst Activities: Evidence from Japan. The Japanese Accounting Review 2012 Volume 2 Issue 2012 pp. 49-73

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Banks play a critical role in corporate governance in many economies around the world. This paper empirically compares the activities of security analysts (i.e., analyst coverage, forecast accuracy and forecast agreement) between firms with and without close working relationships with their banks in order to gain insights into how bank-firm relationships affect the information environments for capital market investors. Close bank-firm relationships signal the banks' positive evaluation of the firms because the banks screen the firms before entering or extending the relationships. Further, during the relationships, the banks monitor these firms. Thus, capital market investors are less motivated to scrutinize the firms, thereby demand less information. Investigating Japanese firms, we document that security analysts' forecasts are less accurate and less agreed (i.e., more dispersed) for the firms with long-established relationships with banks. Likewise, analyst coverage, forecast accuracy and forecast agreement are all lower for the firms with a larger amount of loans (i.e., private debt). The associations between bank-firm relationships and security analyst activities hold after controlling for the potential correlated variables (i.e., capital market financing, performance volatility, financial distress, cross-holding).

International debt securities issuance in the second quarter of 2012. BIS Quarterly Review, September 2012 p.18

Book review for Japan’s New Inequality: Intersection of Employment Reforms and Welfare Arrangements. Edited by Yoshimichi Sato and Jun Imai Social Science Japan Journal 2012 Vol.15 No. 2 pp.261-264

Authority and Soft Information Production within a Bank Organization. IMES Discussion Paper Series No. 2012 -E-7

Doing Business in Asia. RIETI Discussion Paper Series 12-E-074 November 2012

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Rapid economic growth and globalization in Asia are driving new investment opportunities and intensifying competition. To sustain competitive advantage in this new business environment, which is marked by both fierce competition and unprecedented opportunities for collaboration, business leaders must expand their vision beyond their local markets and industries to the rest of Asia and the world. As Japan's population declines and ages and the yen continues to appreciate rapidly, attention is being drawn to the rapid growth of emerging markets, especially in Asia. Confronted with these new circumstances, many Japanese companies have adopted the "expansion of business overseas" as their growth strategy, but this is a very steep path to climb. However, successful cases of growing business in Asian countries are emerging. In this RIETI discussion paper, we will introduce successful cases of business growth by Japanese companies in Asia, especially in China and India. Key lessons from these cases are as follows: allowing globalization to drive a new business model; hybridization of the new business model and the existing business model, and effective human resource management.

Fostering Innovation through Value Co-Creation　Highlighting Japan, February 2012, pp.18-19, Public Relations Office, Government of Japan

Promoting Globalization Will Open The Way to the Future for the Japanese Economy, Issues Facing Japanese Economy in 2011, RIETI Paper (http://www.rieti.go.jp/en/columns/s12_0010.html)