Video: BoJ’s Hiromi Yamaoka on the failure of global rulemakers to learn from Japan’s ‘lost decade’

Experience from Japan’s financial crisis in the 1990s showed the importance of maintaining the core intermediation function of banks by not placing an excessive regulatory burden on them, a lesson that US and European regulators may have failed to grasp, according to Hiromi Yamaoka at the Bank of Japan. Yamaoka also speaks about new recovery and resolution plans, the strength of the Japanese banking system and why he’s not worried about spiralling government debt

Hiromi Yamaoka, Bank of Japan

Japan's financial crisis in the 1990s led to a prolonged period of sluggish post-crisis economic growth – the so-called 'lost decade' – and balance sheet adjustment pressures for banks, something global rulemakers should be mindful of when regulating banks today, says Hiromi Yamaoka, associate director-general of the financial system and bank examination department at the Bank of Japan in Tokyo.

"There is some similarity with Europe and the US where the tempo of growth is now slower – we