Bankruptcies in Japan jump 34% last month

By Toru Fujioka, Bloomberg Thursday, October 9, 2008 10:22 am TOKYO –– Japan’s corporate bankruptcies jumped 34 percent last month, the fastest pace i n eight years, as demand for exports slumped and credit-market turmoil engulfed the world’s second-largest economy. Bankruptcies rose to 1,408 cases in September from the same month a year earlier, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. said in a report in Tokyo Wednesday. That’s the biggest jump since March 2000, when cases rose 38.6 percent, according to Bloomberg data. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average tumbled 8.7 percent, its biggest rout since October 1987, on concern the global credit crisis will prolong the economy’s stagnation. Corporate failures are rising at the steepest rate since Japan’s banking crisis in 2000 as the credit shortage deprives businesses of cash. “We’re in the... [read full story]