Moody's Investors Service may not be correctly evaluating Japanese companies, argues a paper released Monday by the Japan Center for International Finance.
None of 25 firms that Moody's rated poorly five years ago have since defaulted on debt payments, according to the paper.
The American credit-rating firm may not be taking into account the low-default structure that arises from the Japanese form of corporate governance, which features management dependent on main banks and mutual shareholdings among groups of firms, the paper says.