Before reading on, do spend some time going through the under-mentioned four questions and see if you can identify with any of them.

Question 1
Do you feel a constant pressure to achieve and be the best?

Question 2
Do you have to be in control all the time?

Question 3
Do you feel that you can never be as good in doing something as other people?

Question 4
Does your self-esteem depend on how others perceive of you?

If you have answered yes to any of the above questions, don’t worry. This article was written to help you.

At this juncture, I think some, if not most of you might already have guessed the theme of this article. Yes, I’ll be teaching you how to manage stress and how to make stress work for you.

We complain about stress everyday. But what exactly is stress?

Stress is the feeling of tension or anxiety we feel under certain conditions. Or as others might put it, the “war and tear” of our bodies.

Contrary to popular belief that there are 101 factors that cause stress, simply thinking of these 101 factors will already make you stressed. So, forget about them. I’m telling you now that there are only four stress-building reasons, which are related to the four questions which I posed at the very beginning of this article.

Let’s review the questions again.

Question 1 – Do you feel a constant pressure to achieve and be the best?

Are you trying to be like Tina Turner who goes “simply the best, better than all the rest, better than anyone else, anyone I’ve ever met”?

If you acknowledge this, I hereby pronounce you guilty of the first charge of trying to be perfect.

No one in this world is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. Instead of criticising yourself for not being perfect, just remember that there will always be people who are better than you and there will always be people who are worse than you. Don’t compare yourself with others. Just do what you must do and do you best.

Question 2 – Do you have to be in control all the time?

If ‘yes’, you are guilty of the second charge of trying to be strong.

To you, any lack of control is a sign of weakness or failure. As such, you are constantly putting yourself in a tight position, with no room for flexibility at all. Relax, let others take the lead. It might be good to be a follower sometimes.

Question 3 – Do you feel that you can never be as good in doing something as other people?

Answering ‘yes’ would deliver the third charge of trying to be careful.

In your bid to be extra careful, you give up the forest for the trees. You take great care of the minor aspects but neglect the major aspects, allowing them to stress you later.

Question 4 – Does your self-esteem depend on how others perceive of you?

A ‘yes’ would man that you are guilty of the fourth charge of trying to be popular.

It seems that you live for the sake of others. You are better at caring for others than caring for yourself. In order to avoid displeasing others, you hide your negative feelings, allowing them to come out at full force later to stress you.

‘Yes’ answers to all these four charges indicate road-blocks to a tress-free life.

There is no way we can eliminate stress. What is more important is to know how to make stress work for us.

Thinking on the brighter side, stress does have positive effects. Positive stress adds an element of anticipation and excitement to life. We all thrive under a certain amount of stress. Datelines, assignments, competitions and presentations add depth and enrichment to our lives. Stress is essential for life. People moan daily about feeling stressed. Yet imagine a life without stress. Imagine having nothing to do or think about for the whole day. How boring it would be. How stressful it would be to get by every minute.

Stress levels increase when you are concentrating on your most alarming thoughts. But stress levels fall when you turn your attention away from these areas. Thus, an advice as to how to reduce the level of stress in your life would be to actively turn away from negative stress building thoughts and focus on the positive stress busting thoughts.

An example of a stress builder would be this.

“I’ll never get this project done in time.”

Don’t say this. Think positive. Create a stress buster and tell yourself this instead.

“If I stay focused and take it one step at a time, I’ll make steady progress.”

Add stress busters to your life.

Instead of stressing yourself and be reminded that the examinations are less than say one week away, create a stress buster. Think positive. Motivate yourself by thinking of the long holidays after the examinations. Think of the vacation you will be going for. Think of the part-time job you will be getting and the extra income it would give. Or better still, take it one step further. Think of all the good grades you will be getting for all your modules.

So the next time you feel stressed, don’t. Just turn your attention away from the stress building thoughts and create stress busters.

Written by: Lionel L (21 Oct 1998)

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Afternote (4 Mar 08)

I submitted this article and it was accepted. It’s now available for download from EzineArticles.com directory. Cool. And by virtue of this, I have the right to display the accolade on my site

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The structure of Japan’s banking system was shaped in the 1950s, during the period of national reconstruction. However, the developments that gave rise to the Japanese financial model after the Meiji Restoration, in the second half of the nineteenth century are still present today.

The Japanese banking system has traditionally been distinguished by a high degree of specialization. There are the ordinary banks, specialized banks and the Bank of Japan. We can further sub-divide the ordinary banks into city banks, regional banks and foreign banks. The specialized banks can also be differentiated into long-term credit banks, trust banks, governmental financial institutions and specialized financial institutions. However, these differences are gradually being eroded as the barriers between banking and securities businesses are reduced. This stems from the deregulation of the banking system that took place in 1992 when the Financial System Reform Law was passed. As a result of the legislation, ordinary banks, long-term credit banks and trust banks can now engage in securities activities.

Of particular interest to this paper are two sub-categories under the ordinary banks, namely the city banks and the regional banks. After all, they are the most commonly mentioned banks when one speaks of the Japanese banking system.

CITY BANKS

There are 10 city banks in Japan and such banks are considered to be the largest and most influential group of banks in Japan, after the Bank of Japan. They are based in large cities such as Tokyo and Osaka and operate domestically on a nationwide scale through networks of branch offices. City banks have traditionally emphasized their businesses with large corporate clients, including the major industrial companies in Japan. However, in the light of deregulation and other competitive factors, many of these banks (including the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi) have increased emphasis on other markets.

REGIONAL BANKS
With some exception, the regional banks tend to be smaller in terms of total assets as compared to the city banks. There are 129 regional banks whose operations are concentrated typically in one of Japan’s 47 prefectures. Sometimes, these regional banks do extend their operations into the neighbouring prefectures. Their clients are mostly small and medium sized regional enterprises and the local public. Some of the larger regional banks do however set up representative offices overseas.
For my purpose, I will be examining in greater detail the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (an example of a city bank) and Higo Bank (an example of a regional bank).

Following the merger of Mitsubishi Bank and the Bank of Tokyo in April 1996, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (BTM) became the world’s largest bank in terms of assets. The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi is Japan’s premier bank. Its domestic network comprises 350 branches, sub-branches and agencies. Overseas, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Group consists of more than 400 facilities located in all the major financial and commercial centres of the world. The Group offers an extensive scope of financial products and services to businesses, governments and private individuals. It provides a wide spectrum of commercial, investment and trust banking products and service not only in Japan, but also throughout its global subsidiaries.

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi is the only Japanese financial institution to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and its commitment to fulfilling its responsibilities as a global corporate citizen has also received positive recognition.

THE BANK OF TOKYO-MITSUBISHI IN SINGAPORE

Being a leader in project finance for infrastructure, production, commercial and leisure facilities, it is deeply involved in regional resource development. Perhaps that was the chief reason why the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi chose to set up branches throughout Asia.

The Group’s Singapore capital market operations provide a reliable foundation for the growing number of businesses looking to raise funds directly in Asian markets. In Singapore, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi offers the following services shown in Table 1.

Table 1: The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi’s operations in Singapore

FACILITY	SERVICES
Singapore Branch	Commercial Banking
Jurong Sub-Branch	Deposit Taking
Tokyo-Mitsubishi International (Singapore) Ltd	Project Financing and Merchant Banking
BTM Futures (Singapore) Pte Ltd	Futures
Sime Diamond Leasing (Singapore) Pte Ltd	Leasing

Source: BTM Annual Report 1998

What is particularly interesting about the above table is that even in an overseas subsidiary like Singapore, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi sees the need to be specialized as in which facility provides which service. This largely parallels the practice back in Japan.

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in Singapore functions like any other ordinary Singapore bank. Quite surprising, there are considerable many Singaporeans who have deposited money with the bank, alongside the Japanese expatriates (although the exact figure could not be revealed as it is a bank secret). Also, the bank makes loans to individuals and corporations of any nationality, not only to the Japanese. But the Japanese still form the bulk of its business. As is the practice of other banks, if the loan requested is quite large, a collateral is required.

THE STORY BEHIND THE MERGER

Inside information from the staff of the Singapore branch of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi has revealed that prior to the merger, Mitsubishi Bank was actually approved by the Japanese government to form a merger with the Bank of Tokyo. Signs were apparent that the Bank of Tokyo was in bad shape and had there not been a merger, it could well have been the next bank to go bust. The Bank of Tokyo, being partially owned by the government could not possibly face another setback of seeing another collapse amid the crumbling of the banking system.

Although the two banks have merged in name, there are still many issues lying beneath that have yet to be solved. The most crucial issue in the eyes of many of the employees is the wage problem. Presently, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi still operates a dual wage system. The employees of the former Bank of Tokyo and the Mitsubishi Bank respectively would be paid according to their old salaries. As such, there are two human resource managers looking after the pay matters. One staff from the now defunct Bank of Tokyo told me that she is unhappy about the fact that her colleague from the ex-Mitsubishi Bank is actually getting a much higher salary than her, although both are doing the same job and go by the position of senior clerk. Both had the same educational background and exactly twelve years of experience in the bank. It might just take another two or three years to achieve a flat wage rate across the board for both sets of employees. Currently, the Singapore branch is awaiting further instructions from the Japanese head office with regard to this matter because incidentally, the head office is also facing the same problem.

It was also revealed that the Mitsubishi Bank was the dominant partner in the merger. But in order to accord due respect to the Japanese government, the ‘Bank of Tokyo’ label was given first priority.

Table 2: Total Assets and Liabilities of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi

	Year ended 31 March
	1996 (yen)	1997 (yen)	1998 (yen)
Total Assets (in billions of yen)	81,098	83,570	86,814
Total Liabilities (in billions of yen)	77,237	80,005	84,071

Source: BTM Annual Report 1998

In the Annual Report 1998, reasons such as possible credit losses, an increase in non-interest expenses, net investment securities losses, net foreign exchange losses and goodwill amortization were cited to account for the increase in total liabilities for the year ended 31 March 1998.

PROFILE OF HIGO BANK

Higo Bank is a regional bank serving its main business base of Kumamoto Prefecture in central Kyushu. It counts among its major clients major departmental stores like Tsuruya and Iwata and corporations like Nikonikodo. Besides the financial services which it provides, it is also heavily involved in a wide range of environmental and cultural activities, such as the establishment of the Foundation of the Preservation of Water Resources in the province of Higo, as well as hosting art exhibitions and sponsoring ballet performances.

HIGO BANK IN SINGAPORE

The Singapore subsidiary of Higo Bank is only a representative office with three staff, namely the Chief Representative, Assistant Chief Representative and the secretary. Higo Bank’s representative office was set up in Singapore because of its strategic location and good infrastructure. The representative office functions as an information base in Southeast Asia and transmits data cum other information back to the head office in Japan. By doing so, the representative office aids its Japanese clients in Japan who wish to invest in Southeast Asia, providing them with the necessary background information.

In addition, all requests of its Japanese clients and corporations based in Singapore are redirected back to its head office. The head office will then study the merit of each loan request separately and decide whether or not to give the loan. The chief criteria which it bases its decision on will depend on the past performance and financial status of the corporation at present.

As a representative office, it does not perform the other services one would normally expect a bank to provide. As the secretary puts it, the representative office is merely a source of information and does not have the power to make any decisions. The job of both the Chief Representative and his assistant is to ensure that the relevant information is collected and sent to Japan as and when the head office requires it. But on most occasions, their primary job is to entertain the Japanese clients with activities like golfing, drinking and karaoke.

SAYING NO TO A MERGER

It came as a surprise when I learnt that Higo Bank was asked if it would want to form a merger with Fuji Bank. After all, both belonged to the Fuyo Group. (See Table 3)

Table 3: Keiretsu (The Fuyo Group)

Keiretsu	Name	Status
The Fuyo Group
Banks	Fuji Bank	Urban Bank No. 3
	Yasuda Trust	Trust Bank No. 4
	Chiba Kogyo Bank
	Ogaki Kyontsu Bank
	Shikoku Bank
	Higo Bank

Source: Jordi Canals, Universal Banking (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997), p.189, table 7.8

For a small regional bank like Higo Bank to come into a merger with a big city bank like Fuji Bank would probably boost its prestige and do it some good. But merger was there none. On both occasions when Fuji Bank initiated the merger, Higo Bank refused on grounds that Fuji Bank had too many bad debts.

Table 4: Total Assets and Liabilities of Higo Bank

	Year ended 31 March
	1996 (yen)	1997 (yen)
Total Assets (in billions of yen)	2,893	2,949
Total Liabilities (in billions of yen)	2,753	2,802

Source: Higo Bank Annual Report 1997. (1998 figures not available then.)

THE GREAT LAND PRICE BOOM AND THE BUBBLE ECONOMY

Any meaningful analysis of banking in Japan must address the question of how it was that the apparent overarching supremacy enjoyed by the banking system in the 1980s degenerated into a story of near disaster by the mid 1990s.

The term ‘bubble economy’ has been widely understood to apply only to the phenomenal rise in Japanese stock and land prices during the latter part of the 1980s. It aptly describes the artificial and unsustainable rates of growth in Japan’s economy during this period and beyond which enabled Japan to become the world’s largest creditor nation. The bubble was fed by spectacular increase in stock and land values between 1986 and 1990. But the problem was because of the way in which ‘asset inflation’ helped build up a massive expansion in credit, private investment and personnel consumption.

In the 1970s, Japan was producing machinery and was heavily involved in manufacturing. But come the 1980s, wealth was created from the means of invisible business by the buying and selling of stocks and shares and land. This was very attractive then because of the quick and high returns from this method of financing. This drove Japan’s economic expansion even further.

Between 1985 and the end of 1989, the stock prices peaked and during this same period, land prices in Japan quadrupled such that the price of Tokyo equalled the real estate value of the whole of America.

This remarkable appreciation in land prices made Japanese banks feel very secure with the practice of taking collateral and the rising value of the collateral (which was land) encouraged the banks to lend out even more. Because the Japanese firms practiced debt financing, which meant that 80% of its capital came from loans from banks, it has a very high risk of not being able to repay the debt. And this was exactly what happened. The land price boom received additional zest during the bubble economy period and kept snowballing. This reinforced the widely held myth that land prices would go on increasing forever. But no doubt, the bubble economy did led to the phenomenal increase in Japan’s banking assets.

THE BURSTING OF THE BUBBLE

The chief manifestation of Japan’s bubble economy was the astronomical value which both land and stock process reached before this phenomenon ran its course by 1990. The bubble created a sense of unmatched prosperity in Japan with full employment, high corporate profits and the overall wealth effect created from high asset prices.

The first signs of an impending bubble burst was in March 1990 when the Nikkei stock index plunged drastically in one single day. Soon after, the whole market came crashing down rapidly. And like a chain reaction, the commercial land values eventually fell to one-third of what they were worth during the bubble period. Residential land prices were halved leading to a loss in confidence. As many loans were based on mortgages of high-priced land during the bubble period, banks could not collect back the loans they had lent out. And the ultimate effect was that Japan plunged into an economic recession and experienced stagnation.

THE GLOOM IN JAPAN

The dire consequences of the bursting of the bubble are apparent. The Japanese economy continues to stagnate, bankruptcies rising to the highest level, the failures of several large financial institutions and the decrease in consumer demand along with declining confidence in the Japanese economy. To make things worse, the Asian economic crisis rages on, affecting areas of substantial Japanese overseas investments especially in Southeast Asia, leaving the Japanese banking system with US$600 billion in bad debts. However, both the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Higo Bank have been able to write away their bad debts.

THE BIG BANG

Various proposals have been made by the Japanese government for the further deregulation of the Japanese banking system and to improve the soundness of it. In November 1996, the then Prime Minister Hashimoto announced the Japanese financial system reform, which has been nicknamed Japan’s Big Bang. The most famous output of this was the formation of bridge banks to take over the failed banks. In all, ?7 trillion was set aside by the Ministry of Finance for the bridge banks which were to bail out the ailing banks and to speed up the internal reforms.

Free, fair and global are the guiding principles of Japan’s Big Bang. Overall, the Big Bang is designed to deregulate Japan’s financial system and maintain Japan’s leading role in world markets into the next millennium.

Table 5: Japan’s Big Bang

Free	To encourage a freely accessible and vibrant marketplace. The barriers separating banking and other services in the financial sector, including the securities and insurance businesses are eliminated.
Fair	To promote confidence in the financial system, the regulatory environment is being made more transparent. Compliance will also be strictly enforced.
Global	To promote Japan as an internationally competitive market. Legal, accounting and supervisory systems are being adjusted to integrate them with global standards for financial transactions.

Source: BTM Annual Report 1998

However big a bang it was, it did not come soon enough. It took the Japanese government six long years to realize that the Japanese banking system was in bad shape and something had to be done about it. To answer for his country’s financial woes, Hashimoto announced his resignation in July 1998. However, the Obuchi government has pledged to carry on with the Big Bang.

A new era in Japanese banking began on 1 April 1998 as Japan took the first significant steps into realizing its Big Bang reforms and fully integrate itself into the global financial community. A new Foreign Exchange and Trade Law took effect on the same day as part of the package.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE BIG BANG FOR BANK OF TOKYO-MITSUBISHI AND HIGO BANK

This new law paves the way for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi to leverage the global power of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Group to meet the wide-ranging needs of its clients around the world. The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi is responding with continued product innovations backed by timely delivery of the most advanced foreign exchange and related information.

Among the many areas evolving from the Big Bang, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi sees foreign exchange, asset management and investment banking as strategic areas of focus.

As compared to the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Higo Bank is now implementing its “medium-term management plan 1997″ which runs from April 1997 to March 2000. This is designed to respond to the Big Bang. Higo Bank aims to be the “number one bank for credibility”, combining high earning power and financial soundness with complete customer confidence.

The goals of its three-year plan are to strengthen earning power, move to a low-cost structure and to establish a risk management system.

WHITHER THE JAPANESE BANKING SYSTEM?

The Big Bang is scheduled to be completed early in the next century. Hopefully by then, Japan’s consumers will have a far greater choice of investment options for their ?,200 trillion of personal savings by that time. They will also be vested with greater knowledge of investment risks, leading to more efficient management of their financial resources.

Tokyo will then be reinvigorated as a financial centre, with access to a vast reserve of funds. The Big Bang signifies the opening up of Japan to the world for business based in global standards. More importantly, it will bring new opportunities to develop new products and new areas of business.

No matter how ambitious Big Bang sounds, the future of the Japanese banks really lie in the resolution of the bad debt problem. There are still some banks where the costs relating to bad debts are considerable. Larger banks should in most cases be able to survive as long as they are permitted to take their time in disposing of bad debts.

One way is to initiate more mergers between banks of different sizes as this is a combination of one bank rescuing another bank in trouble. By not letting the banks fail, this will aid the ailing banks tide over this difficult period. But this may also mean prolonging or even aggravating the deep-rooted problem and not rectifying it. One may even think of it as continuously throwing money into a black hole which is in fact a bottomless pit.

The other viable option is to let the banks fail rather than to bail them out. This is generally bad in the short term, considering that if such a measure were adopted, it will have an adverse effect on the Japanese banking sector. Not forgetting that at present, the economy is already at an all time low, and there is a greater chance of a total disintegration. On the contrary, such a measure will bring about positive effects in the long term as all the weaklings and parasites will be eradicated once and for all, leaving only the fundamentally strong and sound ones to survive. Also, in order to revitalize the entire Japanese economy, the government has to regenerate consumer spending.

I believe that banks like the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Higo Bank which are successful in surviving this consolidation period will be able to emerge even more competitive come the completion of the Big Bang.

Qualitative rather than quantitative changes will decide whether or not the Japanese banking system can re-emerge with a new vigour once the immediate task of dealing with the bad loans are over. But what will really decide the future international competitiveness of Japanese banks is neither downsizing, nor upsizing through mergers. Rather, it depends on the ability of bank managements to adapt to a fundamentally changed reality and to play along with global financial rules.

Bibliography

Anthony Rowley, Banking in Japan – from Crisis to Consolidation (Financial Times, Financial Publishing: London, 1997)

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Annual Report 1998

Banking System in Japan (Federation of Bankers Associations of Japan, 1979)

Higo Bank Annual Report 1997

Jordi Canals, Universal Banking – International Comparisons and Theoretical Perspectives (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1997)

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