The Bank of Japan said that it will “steadily” provide liquidity, as a climb in short-term borrowing costs posed a risk to the nation’s expansion, Bloomberg News reported today. “The bank will steadily purchase various financial assets and provide longer-term funds” so that “the effects of comprehensive monetary easing spread,” it said in the statement in Tokyo today. It left the size of its asset-buying fund and credit programs at 5 trillion yen ($60 billion) and 30 trillion yen respectively and kept the key interest rate unchanged.

Japan Airlines Corp. said Tuesday that a court had approved its restructuring plans—more than 10 months after the struggling airline filed for Japan's biggest-ever nonfinancial bankruptcy protection, The Wall Street Journal reported. JAL will now move to implement steps toward its lofty goal of posting its highest-ever operating profit within three years as set under the restructuring plan. "We are grateful to be given the opportunity to rehabilitate," said JAL President Masaru Onishi, apologizing to investors for the inconveniences of bankruptcy and share delisting.

A cabin crew union of Japan Airlines Corp decided against a strike, despite being granted the right to strike by its members in a vote that began as a protest against planned layoffs, the Nikkei business daily reported. Of the 870 union members, 97 percent cast votes, out of which 89 percent supported a strike, the report said. JAL has about 5,400 flight attendants and most of them belong to a different union that is the airline's largest, the Nikkei said. The union contends that members were able to express their collective will through the vote itself, the daily said.

Japan Airlines Corp said Monday it will terminate the employment contracts of up to 250 pilots and cabin attendants after its additional voluntary retirement program failed to meet its job reduction target, Japan Today reported. The decision by JAL, which is restructuring under court protection, and its bankruptcy administrator, the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan, comes as the airline is aiming to obtain court approval for its restructuring plans by the end of this month.

The Tokyo District Court has decided to start bankruptcy protection procedures for consumer lender Takefuji Corp., its administrator said Sunday, The Japan Times reported on a Kyodo News story. Takefuji, snowed under by mounting refund claims for excessive interest charges, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 28. The number of borrowers who haven't sought reimbursement yet is meanwhile estimated at anything from 1 million to around 2 million, with potential claims estimated at ¥1 trillion to ¥2 trillion.

The chairman of Japan Airlines Corp. said Wednesday that the airline plans to boost its capital by another Y50 billion ($615.5 million) on top of an expected Y350 billion injection from a state-backed turnaround body as it restructures itself in bankruptcy, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Kazuo Inamori also said the company, together with the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp., is trying to drum up new loans from JAL's reluctant creditors as it plans to refinance its roughly Y300 billion debt by the end of March.

Acom Co. and Promise Co. said they’ve seen an increase in customer inquiries about repayments of overcharged interest since rival consumer lender Takefuji Corp. sought bankruptcy protection two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported. Masahito Osawa, a spokesman for Acom, and Promise’s Risa Matsumura said more clients are asking about refunds for overcharged interest since Takefuji’s collapse, without providing estimates for the potential cost. Takefuji’s Sept.

Takefuji Corp., once the symbol of the era of rapid growth in consumer finance, filed for bankruptcy protection in late September under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law, Asahi.com reported in an editorial. Takefuji's failure is not the simple saga of the demise of a single company. It poses a big question to the entire consumer credit industry: How can the sector push through the reforms needed to carve out a viable future for itself? Takefuji collapsed under the crippling burden of refunding borrower claims of overpaid interest.

Shinsei Bank is expected to become the financial adviser for the search of an investor for failed consumer lender Takefuji Corp, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said, Reuters reported. Takefuji last month filed for bankruptcy owing about $5 billion, making it the biggest Japanese consumer lender to fail since a court ruling in 2006 forced the industry to repay borrowers for excessive interest charges. Shinsei Bank's appointment will become official pending court approval, one of the people said. Read more.

Takefuji Corp., a consumer lender that came to symbolize practices that led to a crackdown against the industry, filed for bankruptcy protection with 433.61 billion yen ($5.15 billion) in outstanding debts, the first major failure in an industry suffering under the weight of stricter regulatory control, The Wall Street Journal reported. Takefuji's demise marks the end of an era in an industry that lent millions of yen to lower-income Japanese at sky-high interest rates.