A law giving small and medium-size enterprises grace periods to repay debts has played a big role in averting bankruptcies during the dire economic conditions that followed the Lehman Brothers shock in the fall of 2008.

As the law will expire at the end of March, financial institutions have expressed their readiness to continue helping such enterprises in this way from April. The government needs to carefully watch lending institutions' behavior to forestall instances of their refusing to lend money or retracting loan credit.

It is also important that if small and medium-size companies are going through business revitalization, executives and financial institutions work out effective revitalization plans that fully utilize the companies' resources and their fields of expertise.