Shareholder meetings were held at 148 companies across the country Thursday, a day earlier than those held by many major businesses.

Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank's meeting, which ran just over two hours, saw many shareholders question management about the bank's pretax losses of about 155 billion yen in fiscal 1997. The gathering at 10 a.m. was attended by 518 shareholders and monitored by the press.

The bank, still suffering from last year's scandals involving payoffs to a "sokaiya" corporate extortionist, explained the corrective action it has taken to prevent further illicit payoffs.