It may be premature at this stage (May 1998) to look for any dramatic effects from this April's "Big Bang" on the Japanese economy. In fact, the Nikkei Index is far from recovering even to the Y18,000 level of a year ago, despite the ruling party's 16 trillion yen (US$ 120 billion) economic stimulus package. Nevertheless, there is more to the picture than meets the eye.
The rationale behind the reformation of the Japanese financial system is very similar to that of the "May Day" reforms in the U.S. and the "Big Bang" in the UK - namely, to make the Japanese market an easier place for foreigners to invest, inevitably facilitating Japanese institutional and individual investment outside of Japan (Japanese consumers have been bedeviled for years by unprecedentedly low interest rates). It is also intended to make the Japanese market attractive to foreign investors, and thus the players in the financial industry must be reliable and sophisticated with expertise matching global
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