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Japanese Capital Structure During a Turbulent Period: 1984-2000

For Japan, 1984-2000 includes a major financial liberalization, a stock and real estate market boom followed by a crash, plus the subsequent weakness of most Japanese banks. We examine how Japanese corporations responded in terms of overall leverage, its determinants, and the mix of bank versus market debt. The analysis also considers the behavior of keiretsu firms with close bank ties versus that of non-keiretsu firms. Both sets of firms display substantially different behavior regarding market debt versus bank loans. We find considerable evidence that financial liberalization and market access played a major role in capital structure decisions during the later 1980's. There is also evidence of some changes in the 1990's which may relate to bank weakness; however, it appears that the 1980's capital structure adjustments headed off more serious impacts from Japanese bank weakness.