An analysis of the Japanese credit market in 2004 between banks and quoted
firms is done in this paper using the tools of the networks theory. It can be
pointed out that: (i) a backbone of the credit channel emerges, where some
links play a crucial role; (ii) big banks privilege long-term contracts; the
"minimal spanning trees" (iii) disclose a highly hierarchical backbone, where
the central positions are occupied by the largest banks, and emphasize (iv) a
strong geographical characterization, while (v) the clusters of firms do not
have specific common properties. Moreover, (vi) while larger firms have
multiple lending in large, (vii) the demand for credit (long vs. short term
debt and multi-credit lines) of firms with similar sizes is very heterogeneous.Comment: 23 pages with 14 figures; revised and Figure 14 adde