Corporate failures in May fall for 17th straight month.

Japan Weekly Monitor, June, 2004

TOKYO, June 14 Kyodo

The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan dropped 20.2 percent in May from a year earlier to 1,182, down for the 17th straight month, a private-sector corporate credit research agency said Monday.

Combined debts left by failed companies dropped 32.9 percent to 537.22 billion yen, falling below the 1 trillion yen line for the second straight month, said Teikoku Databank in its monthly report covering failures with debts of 10 million yen or more.

The decline in the number of failures is attributed mainly to ''a reduction in dishonored bills resulting from contractions in credit among companies as well as the effect of public financial assistance being extended to small and medium sized businesses,'' Teikoku...