Financial turbulence and the Japanese main bank

The Japanese "main bank" relationship, under which a bank holds equity in a firm and plays a leading role in its decision-making and financing, may leave a firm dependent on its main bank for financing due its information advantage over other potential lenders. While alternative sources of finance may mitigate this dependency, it may resurface during episodes of financial turbulence. ; We examine the sensitivity of returns on portfolios of Japanese firm equity to the returns of their main banks using a three-factor arbitrage-pricing model. We find no significant dependence on main bank returns when coefficient values are constrained to remain constant over the entire sample. However, the data strongly suggest a structural break subsequent to the last quarter of 1997, a turbulent period for Japanese financial markets. When a structural break is introduced, main bank sensitivity increases after the break, usually to significantly positive levels.Banks and banking - Japan ; Finance

Determinants of voluntary bank disclosure: evidence from Japanese Shinkin banks

Disclosure is widely regarded as a necessary condition for market discipline in a modern financial sector. However, the determinants of disclosure decisions are still unknown, particularly among banks. This paper investigates the determinants of disclosure by Japanese Shinkin banks in 1996 and 1997. This period is unique because disclosure by these banks was voluntary during this time. We find that banks with more serious bad loan problems, more leverage, less competitive pressure, and smaller banks were less likely to choose to voluntarily disclose. These results suggest that there may be a role for compulsory disclosure, as weak banks appear to disproportionately avoid voluntary disclosure.Japan

Determinants of Voluntary Bank Disclosure: Evidence from Japanese Shinkin Banks

Disclosure is widely regarded as a necessary condition for market discipline in a modern financial sector. However, the determinants of disclosure decisions are still unknown, particularly among banks. This paper investigates the determinants of disclosure by Japanese Shinkin banks in 1996 and 1997. This period is unique because disclosure of non-performing loans was voluntary for Shinkin banks at this time. We find that banks with more serious bad loan problems, more leverage, less competitive pressure, and smaller banks were less likely to choose to voluntarily disclose. These results suggest that there may be a role for compulsory disclosure, as weak banks appear to disproportionately avoid voluntary disclosure.disclosure, Japanese banking, market discipline

The evolution of "too-big-to-fail" policy in Japan: evidence from market equity values

This paper examines the evidence in bank equity markets concerning bank regulatory policies in Japan over the turbulent 1995-1998 period. We find that investors grouped banks according to regulatory status in assessing whether a bank was currently treated as "too-big-to-fail." when a failure of a bank of certain regulatory status was announced, excess returns on other banks of that regulatory status and below displayed heightened sensitivity to adverse news. This suggests that investors updated their beliefs about which classes of banks were protected by too-big-to-fail policies over the course of the sample. The pattern that emerges suggests that government officials pursued a policy of "regulatory triage," where initially Credit Cooperatives, then Second Regional banks, then First Regional banks, and finally City banks were allowed to fail.Banks and banking - Japan ; Bank failures ; Bank supervision

Generic estimates for magnetic fields generated during inflation including Dirac-Born-Infeld theories

We estimate the strength of large-scale magnetic fields produced during inflation in the framework of Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) theories. This analysis is sufficiently general in the sense that it covers most of conformal symmetry breaking theories in which the electromagnetic field is coupled to a scalar field. In DBI theories there is an additional factor associated with the speed of sound, which allows a possibility to lead to an extra amplification of the magnetic field in a ultra-relativistic region. We clarify the conditions under which seed magnetic fields to feed the galactic dynamo mechanism at a decoupling epoch as well as present magnetic fields on galactic scales are sufficiently generated to satisfy observational bounds.Comment: 7 pages, no figure, accepted in Phys. Rev.

Accelerating Cosmologies from S-Branes

We point out that the recently proposed model of a flat 4-dimensional universe with accelerated expansion in string/M-theory is a special case of time-dependent solutions that the author found under the name of ``S-branes.'' We also show that similar accelerating models can be obtained from S-branes if the internal space is chosen to be hyperbolic or flat spaces.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, comments added, a typo corrected, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Holography and D3-branes in Melvin Universes

Recently,in a paper hep-th/0511197, it was found that non-commutative super Yang-Mills (NCSYM) theory with space-dependent noncommutativity can be formulated as a decoupling limit of open strings ending on D3-branes wrapping a Melvin universe supported by a flux of the NSNS B-field. Under S-duality, we show that this theory turns into a noncommutative open string (NCOS) theory with space-dependent space-time noncommutativity and effective space-dependent string scale. It is an NCOS theory with both space-dependent space-space and space-time noncommutativities under more general $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ transformation. These space-dependent noncommutative theories (NCSYM and NCOS) have completely the same thermodynamics as that of ordinary super YM theory, NCSYM and NCOS theories with constant noncommutativity in the dual supergravity description. Starting from black D3-brane solution in the Melvin universe and making a Lorentz boost along one of spatial directions on the worldvolume of D3-branes, we show that the decoupled theory is a light-like NCSYM theory with space-dependent noncommutativity in a static frame or in an infinite-momentum frame depending on whether there is a gravitational pp-wave on the worldvolume of the D3-branes.Comment: Latex, 13 pages, v2: typos fixed, the version in PR

Notes on Entropy Force in General Spherically Symmetric Spacetimes

In a recent paper [arXiv:1001.0785], Verlinde has shown that the Newton gravity appears as an entropy force. In this paper we show how gravity appears as entropy force in Einstein's equation of gravitational field in a general spherically symmetric spacetime. We mainly focus on the trapping horizon of the spacetime. We find that when matter fields are absent, the change of entropy associated with the trapping horizon indeed can be identified with an entropy force. When matter fields are present, we see that heat flux of matter fields also leads to the change of entropy. Applying arguments made by Verlinde and Smolin, respectively, to the trapping horizon, we find that the entropy force is given by the surface gravity of the horizon. The cases in the untrapped region of the spacetime are also discussed.Comment: revtex4, 21 pages, no figures, one reference added, published version, to appear in Phys.Rev.

Probing the Coupling between Dark Components of the Universe

We place observational constraints on a coupling between dark energy and dark matter by using 71 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from the first year of the five-year Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS), the cosmic microwave background (CMB) shift parameter from the three-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), and the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) peak found in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The interactions we study are (i) constant coupling delta and (ii) varying coupling delta(z) that depends on a redshift z, both of which have simple parametrizations of the Hubble parameter to confront with observational data. We find that the combination of the three databases marginalized over a present dark energy density gives stringent constraints on the coupling, -0.08 < delta < 0.03 (95% CL) in the constant coupling model and -0.4 < delta_0 < 0.1 (95% CL) in the varying coupling model, where delta_0 is a present value. The uncoupled LambdaCDM model (w_X = -1 and delta = 0) still remains a good fit to the data, but the negative coupling (delta < 0) with the equation of state of dark energy w_X < -1 is slightly favoured over the LambdaCDM model.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX, minor corrections, references added, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

BIOMECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF JUDO THROWING TECHNIQUE, UCHIMATA, ESPECIALLY FOR NEWLY DEVELOPED FLAMINGO TECHNIQUE

The Kododan Judo, organized in 1882 in Japan by the late President Jigoro Kano, is a refined version ofthe ancient martial art of jujitsu. Typically when one envisions martial arts, the mental image includes kicks, punches, and other striking techniques. The sport of Judo involves none of these, but does permit the use of throwing techniques, mat work similar to wrestling, strangle holds and joint locks at the elbow. Despite its original role as a martial art, Judo as practiced today is essentially the highest form of wrestling practiced anywhere in the world (Harter & Bates, 1985)