Teruaki Oda of the state-owned Japan Finance Corporation for Small Business says that many small firms are beginning to develop products on their own.

ECONOMIST: Small firms in Japan

For one, the regulator for American housing lenders, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, was widely felt to be part of the problem, much as Japan's finance ministry now bears the onus for the collapse of institutions that it regulates.

ECONOMIST: Japan��s financial crisis