Japanese finance has, to Western eyes, been an "Alice in Wonderland" affair now for 50 years.

An upheaval in Japanese finance, bringing with it a complete restructuring, is not impossible.

The United States has escaped this fate largely because of the very problems with Japanese finance that Mr. Takenaka promises to attack.

In the staid world of Japanese finance, the Orix Corporation is like a jazz musician.

Last week's nervous selling dragged the Nikkei average down into a murky zone that threatens the very moorings of Japanese finance.

Because of its size and its range of operations, the new bank could emerge as the dominant force in Japanese finance at a time when the economy is reviving.

So are Mr. Baker and the Japanese finance minister, Kiichi Miyazawa.

A merger would be the latest in a long string of consolidations that have changed the face of Japanese finance in recent years, including those that created the four so-called megabanks.

Powell's early books were about the art market, commercial real estate and Japanese finance.

Experts in Japanese finance said it had become common for Japanese companies to make a small investment in a company that they might be interested in buying eventually.