Postal Banking in the United States and Japan: A Comparative Analysis

This paper analyzes the experience of the U.S. postal savings system, and compares it to Japan's experience with a view to assessing the past and potential future role of the postal savings system in Japan. It finds that demand for postal savings deposits is explained, in both countries, mainly by two variables: price (interest differentials) and confidence in private banks. Geographical accessibility in rural areas is of less, and diminishing, importance. It is argued that postal banking should be viewed as an alternative to publicly sponsored deposit insurance, as a means to ensure households' access to safe and convenient savings and payment services. Accordingly, the reforms undertaken in the next few years under the outline set out by the 1998 Basic Law on the Reform of Central Government Ministries and Agencies might best aim to restructure postal savings as a "narrow bank," whose services are priced to fully reflect costs and risks incurred.

Japan Latin America Relations Then and Now - The Japan Model of Economic Engagement: Opportunities for Latin America and The Caribbean

This report has been prepared by Mikio Kuwayama, Managing Director of the Japan Association of Latin America and the Caribbean (JALAC) and Senior Analyst of JALAC’s Institute for Latin American and the Caribbean Studies (ILAC), for the occasion of the Seminar “Japan-Latin America Relations: Then and Now”, cohosted by the Inter-American Dialogue (IAD), September 16-17, 2015, Washington, D.C., USA.

Comments on Japanese economic policy

"I'm going to focus mainly on macro-economic policies, which I realize is not necessarily typical of commentary on Japan. The literature - and media coverage - tend to treat monetary policy, especially, as subordinate to notions of "industry policy" in Japan.

Postal banking in the United States and Japan: A comparative analysis

This paper analyzes the experience of the United States postal savings system, and (in less detail) that of Japan, with a view to assessing the past and potential future role of postal savings in Japan. The immense size of Japan's postal savings system - accounting for one-third of household savings deposits and comprising the largest "bank" in the world - means that the question of their disposition is central to any discussion of the future of Japan's financial system as a whole. This study found that demand for postal savings deposits is explained, in both countries, mainly by two variables: price (interest-differentials) and confidence in private banks. Geographical accessibility in rural areas is of less, and diminishing, importance. It is argued that postal banking should be viewed as an alternative to publicly sponsored deposit insurance, as a means to assure households' access to safe and convenient savings and payment services. This implies that reform discussion should focus on the possibility of restructuring postal savings as a "narrow bank", in such as way as to ensure that services are priced to fully reflect costs and risks incurred

Regulation of guanylyl cyclase by a cGMP-binding protein during chemotaxis in Dictyostelium discoideum

Chemoattractants transiently activate guanylyl cyclase in Dictyostelium discoideum cells. Mutant analysis demonstrates that the produced cGMP plays an essential role in chemotactic signal transduction, controlling the actomyosin-dependent motive force. Guanylyl cyclase activity is associated with the particulate fraction of a cell homogenate. The addition of the cytosol stimulates guanylyl cyclase activity, whereas the cytosol plus ATP/Mg2+ inhibits enzyme activity, We have analyzed the regulation of guanylyl cyclase in chemotactic mutants and present evidence that a cGMP-binding protein mediates both stimulation and ATP-dependent inhibition of guanylyl cyclase. Upon chromatography of cytosolic proteins, cGMP binding activity co-elutes with both guanylyl cyclase-stimulating and ATP-dependent-inhibiting activities. In addition, ATP-dependent inhibition of guanylyl cyclase activity is enhanced by the cGMP analogue 8-Br-cGMP, suggesting that a cGMP-binding protein regulates guanylyl cyclase activity, Mutant KI-4 has an aberrant cGMP binding activity with very low K-d and shows a very small chemoattractant-mediated cGMP response; the cytosol from this mutant does not stimulate guanylyl cyclase, In contrast to KI-4, the aberrant cGMP binding activity of mutant KI-7 has a very high K-d and chemoattractants induce a prolonged cGMP response. The cytosol of this mutant stimulates guanylyl cyclase activity, but ATP does not inhibit the enzyme. Thus, two previously isolated chemotactic mutants are defective in the activation and inhibition of guanylyl cyclase, respectively. The positive and negative regulation of guanylyl cyclase by its product cGMP may well explain how cells process the temporospatial information of chemotactic signals, which is necessary for sensing the direction of the chemoattractant

Japan's new central banking law: A critical view

Japan's new central banking law, enacted in June 1997 with effect from April 1, 1998, takes several steps in the direction of assuring greater transparency, independence, and accountability for the Bank of Japan's conduct of monetary policy. But with respect to the other functions of a central bank, it does no such thing. Instead, the approach has been to leave these traditional banking functions which are at least important as monetary policy narrowly defined - as much as practicable under the control of the government's finance ministry. Most disappointing has been the opaque and haphazard process by which the new law was drafted and passed. This reflects badly on the maturity of Japan's democratic institutions, and represents a discouraging start to the government's "Big Bang" program of financial reform. However, the law does not, in itself, preclude the emergence of an independent and successful central bank: That outcome will depend much more on actions taken by BoJ officials over the next few years

Liquefaction Potential Evaluation Based on Rayleigh Wave Investigation and Its Comparison with Field Behavior

A simplified method is presented for evaluating liquefaction potential of sand deposits using shear wave velocity. Effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated through field tests at 17 sites in Niigata city where field performance during the 1964 Niigata earthquake is known. A modified version of steady state Rayleigh wave method is used in which the amplitude ratio between vertical and horizontal ground surface motions can be measured in addition to the phase velocity. Based on the measured phase velocity vs. wavelength relationship, shear wave velocity profile is determined using an inverse analysis. The liquefaction potential of each site is then evaluated using the shear wave velocity. The estimated results are reasonably consistent with the actual field behavior during the earthquake, indicating that the proposed method is effective