"The government is extremely optimistic about unemployment, " warns Shimanaka Yuji of Sanwa Research Institute.
Prior to joining Nintendo he worked for Sanwa Bank of Japan for nearly three decades.
Sanwa Bank recently set up Mobit, a joint venture with Promise, the third-largest consumer-finance group.
The Japanese can get U.S.-style credit cards and on-line banking at Sanwa Bank.
Sanwa's plan also gets round data-protection laws, which prevent two companies from sharing information about each other's customers.
It is perhaps no coincidence that Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Sanwa Bank have the largest Asian loan books.
Sanwa and its partners, less handicapped by petty rivalries, may yet creep ahead in this crawl to the finish.
Before Yamaichi went bust in November, Merrill was talking to Sanwa Bank about jointly buying Yamaichi's languishing investment-trust business.
Like those of Japan's other big banks, Sanwa's shares have been sliding, losing one-third of their value since last summer.
Shops will also accept debit cards, the market for which banks such as Fuji and Sanwa are just beginning to develop.
Using its own product-development skills, Yamaichi's customer base and Sanwa's 400 branches, Merrill hoped for a fast start in fund management.
Sanwa is under pressure to act quickly, for its exposure to Daiei will double when it merges with Tokai Bank, another lender, in April.
Recently Bandai replaced its second president since the Sega fiasco with Takeo Takasu, who won his spurs at Sanwa, the group's bankers.
This is perhaps a bit unfair: Sanwa may well prove more nimble than its competitors, though, by international standards, it is not exactly going flat out.
You have to stick with financial institutions like Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Sanwa Bank and Sumitomo Bank, where potential dilution is going to be limited although still fairly large.
Firms such as Sony's life-insurance business and large banks such as Sumitomo Bank and Sanwa Bank, which do not want to loosen their hold on sensitive information about customers, have set up their own telemarketing.
Sanwa Bank, one of the chain's four biggest creditors, is weighing several schemes, including one in which Daiei's main supermarket operation has its debts forgiven, allowing it to survive, but other parts of the group are sold or shut down.
Lest it be accused of loan sharking, Sanwa Bank points out that the venture is aimed at untapped middle-income, middle-risk consumers (apparently it is already getting calls from school teachers and tax inspectors) who cannot borrow money at banks but flinch at traditional consumer-finance rates.
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