Foreign investors and financial institutions have often criticized the Japanese financial market for being too ambiguous in its regulatory procedures and, in general, for still being a "closed" market.
Of course, Japan's regulatory bodies, now including the Financial Services Agency (Kinyu Cho), do not purposely set out to confuse potential foreign investors.
But confusion exists nevertheless, largely because Japanese law, unlike U.S. law, is more general when it stipulates regulations, and also because the interpretation of the laws needed to implement the practical business of financing institutions is often left to the discretion of the FSA.