Staff writer

A new financial safety net should be set up by April 2001 to prepare for a possible crisis in the banking sector, Financial Reconstruction Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said Monday.

Some kind of system will be needed to replace the temporary financial stabilization laws after the government's policy of protecting all bank deposits comes to an end, Yanagisawa said in an interview with The Japan Times and other news organizations. "From April 1, 2001, will it be OK for the financial sector to enter the era of the bankruptcy law, the corporate rehabilitation law and the like?" he asked.