Japan: A game of catch-up

After a disastrous few years, Japanese securities houses have begun to rediscover how to make money in international business. They are cutting costs, building up proprietary trading operations and taking advantage of the demand from Japanese retail investors for foreign bonds. But can they ever catch up with their US and European rivals? Garry Evans reports.

Daiwa Securities has gone through an irritating few months. When the $1 billion bond-trading loss at Daiwa Bank’s New York branch became public in October, the securities firm began to feel the repercussions too. But the two firms are not in any way connected. In fact, Daiwa Bank used to be a part of, and is still close to, Nomura, Daiwa Securities’ greatest rival.

In London, Daiwa Securities’ officials had to chase away cameramen from the BBC mistakingly camped outside the firm’s eye-catching building in King William Street.

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