In short, the bank-borrower relationship appears to be an efficient means for overcoming information and cost problems in small firm finance, and for allowing fundamentally creditworthy small firms to finance sound projects that might otherwise go unfunded.
In these areas, there seems to be ample room for tapping potential demand in the domestic market. Japan is the country in the world where the problem of aging and population decline is the most acute, but other countries in Asia will face the same challenges in the not-so-distant future (Chart 16).