Between the early 1990s and 1998, the law has been enacted three times to promote financial and capital markets, by which several reforms of the stock market and investment trusts have proceeded. Specific measures include a reduction in the minimum denomination of stock, lifting of a ban on Fund of Funds, improvement in product design of investment trusts, promotion of senior citizens’ fund.
As a result, the proportion of cash and deposits within total financial assets of the personal sector declined from 45.8 to 35.2 percent in Germany between 1991 and 1999, while in Japan it went up from 50.8 to 54.0 percent.