Diet testimony given March 18 by Nobuhiko Matsuno, former chief of the Finance Ministry's Securities Bureau, indicates that he may have advised a top executive of Yamaichi Securities Co. to continue dubious practices involving a "tobashi" trading-related problem with one of its client firms.
In sworn testimony before the Lower House Budget Committee, Matsuno said he told Atsuo Miki, then Yamaichi's vice president, that there were two ways to solve the problem with the client -- continue tobashi trading or deal with it in court after publicly disclosing the relevant information.
When asked whether he should have, as the top supervisory official of the securities industry, instructed Miki, 62, to halt the questionable practice, Matsuno defended himself by repeating that tobashi is not in itself illegal. "I told Miki that Yamaichi could continue tobashi trading by simply mediating securities transactions if it could be done in a lawful manner.