Scarred by past woes, Japan sees U.S. bailout as a first step

"America is walking the same road as Japan, and that road will be long and hard ahead," said Hirofumi Gomi, a former commissioner of the Financial Services Agency in Japan, the industry watchdog that oversaw the banking cleanup. "There is a lot more pain and turmoil coming."

The similarities with Japan are striking. Like the United States today, Japan in the early 1990s faced a banking and real estate crisis that undermined the entire economy and required large government intervention. Some of Japan's most venerated financial institutions collapsed as snowballing losses from failed business and property loans plunged the nation's financial system into paralysis.


By Martin Fackler
Published: October 10, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/10/asia/10japan.php