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The demise of Yamaichi Securities, the fourth-largest and one of the oldest brokerages in Japan, sent shockwaves through the country and around the world.
An editorial in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper described the death of Yamaichi as 'the beginning of the end of an era`. It signified an end to many things in the Japanese financial system, and signalled that unless changes took place, worse would follow in these times of relentless international competition and globalisation.
Atsushi Nagano, securities bureau director-general at Japan's Ministry of Finance, remarked in November that the closure reflected the need for change. 'For a man who has been pushing for the financial Big Bang, the market's...