Eiichi Tanabe, acting general manager of Mitsubishi Corporation's finance department, declares that the trading company has not accessed the Eurobond markets since 1989 when it issued $1.5 billion of bonds with warrants. It is something of a trick answer - technically correct because the corporation itself has stayed away, but its London financial offshoot and other subsidiaries have remained active, with Mitsubishi Corporation Finance in London having a $12 billion programme of medium-term notes and Eurocommercial paper.
Tanabe describes the last three years as "hectic" with an accompanying sigh that suggests it has been a particularly tough time. But he brightens, declaring: "It has become much easier since March last year. Financial markets have become stabilized, mostly by the government's decision to provide a capital infusion to aid banks. Japanese investors, and those from overseas, were reassured by the government money. This changed the mood drastically."
But he concedes that Japan is not yet out of the woods: "The real problem is that the Japanese economy is still sluggish. Although we see good signs of recovery, it is still limited to certain sectors, such as semi-conductors and mobile phones, so it is not really straight up.