Tokyo finally getting serious about Japan's banking crisis

For Heizo Takenaka, the moment of truth and its consequences approaches. Any day now, we can expect a preliminary report from Japan's new economics overseer on his promised plans to resolve the crisis among the nation's major banks. Takenaka's new policy could be another disappointment, we have to allow for that. Tokyo has delivered too little, too late so often it sometimes seems to have taken its place among kabuki and geisha bars as a great Japanese tradition. I'm an optimist this time. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated clearly the time for action is near when he addressed a...