Japan’s banks were pulled back from the abyss with an emergency transfusion of government funds, after the bubble burst, earlier this decade. Today, balance sheets are fairly sound – the three biggest banks boast Tier 1 ratios at or above 7 per cent – but profit growth remains elusive.

Leaving aside the issue of servicing a country where economic growth is sluggish and saving is paramount, Japanese banks suffer from several foibles. They were among Asia’s most aggressive banks when it came to buying structured credit products. The overall hit is modest in global terms: the banks had $15bn of subprime assets at the year’s end, after losses of just over a fifth of their total exposure, according to the regulator. But the toll has since risen and accounting rules, which require unrealised losses on securities to be taken through the profit-and-loss account only if their market value falls below 50 per cent of par, imply that more are inevitable.