Abstract

This paper explores a new hypothesis that can help to shed light on why the Japanese financial system has fallen into a unique transition failure in terms of its extraordinarily prolonged financial slump. An aspect of the continuing Japanese financial slump can be explained in terms of games that were being played between regulators and main banks as each tried to test the intentions and commitment of the other in a context where the traditional system of monitoring had collapsed together with its relationships of trust. Higher "audience costs" which prevented the restoration of appropriate relations between regulators and banks, associated with the internal collapse of trust in the system, can explain this unique transition failure.