6  BIS Review 1/2005  Since Japan’s Big Bang in 1996, the nation’s financial system has been in transition to a market-based indirect financial system from a bank-based one. The major banks are in the process of transformation from corporate-finance oriented bank management to providers of comprehensive financial services.
In this regard, it seems promising for them to extend their banking business to cover risk management of individuals’ assets, including human capital, over the life cycle as well as the assets of firms. In Japan, the major portion of household savings is held by the elderly, that is, people over 60 years old.