Slide 2 shows the cumulative credit losses experienced by Japanese banks. This figure climbed constantly until it reached almost 100 trillion yen, which corresponds to about 20 percent of Japan's nominal GDP. During the decade of Japan's financial crisis, more than 180 financial institutions, including internationally active ones, went under. The banking sector was broken.
Summary In sum, since the February 2015 Monetary Policy Report, we have seen, despite the soft patch in economic activity in the first quarter, that the labor market has continued to show progress toward our objective of maximum employment. Inflation has continued to run below our longer-run objective, but we believe transitory factors have played a major role.