JAPAN

Bad Loans Soar: Leading banks disclosed a 54% rise in non-performing loans. Finance Minister Tsutomu Hata said the amount of non-performing loans on the books of the top 21 banks is $100 billion and growing. Japan’s minimal disclosure laws and its narrow definition of non-performing loans have made it difficult to assess the severity of the crisis. Analysts’ estimates of bad loans average $244 billion. Banks plan to set up an organization to begin cleaning up the bad loans. The organization will allow banks to write off losses by buying property held as collateral on bad loans.