Japan's banks make slow progress

The economic cycle in Japan appears to be turning down, with industrial production peaking. Japanese banks in the process of selling their Tokyo stocks have driven the market down to near 14-year lows. So why are banks reducing their holdings in stocks at what appears to be a low point in the stock market cycle? And why do they have so much of their capital tied up in volatile stock market implements? Historically, Japanese industry coalesced into industrial groupings known as Keiretsu, where firms form a relationship by exchanging equity with one another (now referred to as cross holdin...