INTERNATIONAL

Japanese Bank Chiefs Give Ritualized Apologies: Three Japanese bank chiefs performed ritualized apologies before a parliamentary panel for their banks’ roles in a web of scandals. But their remarkably similar words rang hollow to some analysts who had hoped for fundamental changes. The apologies from Yo Kurasawa, president of Industrial Bank of Japan Ltd.; Toru Hashimoto, president of Fuji Bank Ltd., and Sotoo Tatsumi, president of Sumitomo Bank Ltd., were delivered before a special lower house panel investigating financial scandals borne out of Japan’s 1980s “bubble economy” of soaring stock and property markets. The three banks are among the many financial institutions, including top brokerages, entangled in the scandals.