Japan's credibility as a future investment location could be hurt unless the government takes aggressive fiscal reforms decisively and swiftly, according to the new chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association, The Wall Street Journal reported. But the country's banks, among the biggest buyers of Japan's government bonds in recent years, aren't likely to face an immediate risk of the kind of sovereign debt crisis seen recently in Europe, said Yasuhiro Sato in a recent interview.

Toshiba Corp has decided to join the bidding race to sponsor Elpida Memory Inc's turnaround from bankruptcy, setting stage for a battle with U.S.-based Micron Technology, the Nikkei business daily said, Reuters reported. Toshiba, which believes adding Elpida's cell-phone-use DRAMs to its offerings is crucial for its survival in the chip industry, might seek financial assistance from the government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan, the newspaper said. Elpida Memory will soon stop accepting applications for the first round of bidding, Nikkei said.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. requested 1 trillion yen ($12 billion) of public funds to avert collapse, paving the way for the government to take control of what once was the world’s biggest private utility, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The company known as Tepco also asked for 845.9 billion yen in extra aid from a government-backed fund to compensate people affected by the Fukushima disaster, President Toshio Nishizawa said at a news briefing today. The utility may face insolvency if its capital keeps falling, he said.

Elpida Memory Inc., the last Japanese maker of computer-memory chips, sought protection from creditors in the U.S. as it pursues a bankruptcy case in Japan. The Tokyo-based chipmaker filed court papers today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, listing more than $1 billion in assets and debt. It asked the court to recognize the Japanese case as the main bankruptcy proceeding. Chapter 15 of the bankruptcy code allows foreign companies reorganizing abroad to protect their assets from creditors and lawsuits in the U.S.

The Bank of Japan said Tuesday it will stoke the economy with an additional ¥2 trillion ($24.32 billion) in lending, following a surprise monetary easing at its last meeting as it heightens its drive to rid the economy of debilitating deflation, The Wall Street Journal reported. "We came up with the measure as part of a package" to deal with deflation along with the credit-easing move last month, BOJ Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said at a news conference following a two-day meeting of the bank's policy board.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda faces an increasingly uphill battle to push through a plan to double the nation's sales tax, struggling to win support from both opposition parties and his own government amid rising global scrutiny of Tokyo's deteriorating fiscal condition, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Noda needs to meet an end of March deadline, as stipulated by the tax law, to submit to parliament a bill that would raise the 5% consumption tax to 10% by 2015.

Directors of some pension funds that invested money with AIJ Investment Advisors Co. say they were attracted by promises of high, or at least sustainable, returns on their investments through the global economic downturn, The Wall Street Journal reported. Now those funds may be facing losses, days after Japan's Financial Services Agency ordered AIJ to suspend its operations, saying the firm allegedly lost most of ¥183 billion ($2.27 billion) in funds it managed. Neither AIJ nor its broker, ITM Securities Co., has been accused of wrongdoing.

Elpida Memory filed for protection from creditors on Monday with $5.6 billion in debt, the biggest bankruptcy filing by a Japanese manufacturer, after potential partners failed to come through to rescue the cash-strapped chipmaker, Reuters reported. Japan, which had lent or invested 40 billion yen ($500 million) with the country's last maker of PC memory chips to help it through the post-Lehman Brothers crisis, appeared to throw in the towel this time as it confronts slumping prices and relentless competition from well-funded Korean rivals.

Japan's financial regulator said Friday it has halted operations of a little-known Tokyo money-management company after the firm allegedly lost billions of dollars in client money, The Wall Street Journal reported. In one of the biggest cases of its kind in Japan, with Tokyo's reputation as a financial center still bruised by the billion-dollar Olympus Corp. accounting scandal, the regulator said investigators found that AIJ Investment Advisors Co. can't account for "most of" the 183 billion yen, or about $2.3 billion, in pension-fund assets under management.

Western investors in Japan's disgraced Olympus have accused its banks of trying to take control of the boardroom by stealth, amid media reports that the firm's major creditors are set to install their own appointees in the top jobs, Reuters reported. Foreign investors in the maker of cameras and medical equipment, engulfed last year by a $1.7 billion accounting fraud, have been arguing for a complete renewal of the board, including outside talent untainted by the scandal.