The injection of public capital into weakened financial institutions was indispensable in stabilizing the financial system, but was politically unpopular. In the current crisis, European and US authorities have deployed such measures much faster than the Japanese case. But more than a year passed after the initial shock which occurred in the summer of 2007, before such measures were initiated.
Fourth, reflecting the situation I have just mentioned, uncertainty regarding the transmission mechanism of monetary policy is much larger than in normal times.