A leading Japanese ship financier has warned the country’s small regional banks based in the shipowning heartland around the Inland Sea are taking on too much risk.
It follows an explosion of low priced lending over the last four years.
Jigo Hayashi, general manager of International Shipping and Finance at Tokyo Century Corporation, said Japan’s regional funding had become the second largest growth source of ship finance and has been outpaced only by the emergence of Chinese leasing.
