Corporate bankruptcies in Japan rose 12.1 percent in fiscal 2000 from a year earlier to 18,926 cases, while debts left behind surged 130.7 percent to 25.98 trillion yen, a record postwar high, a private research institute said Friday.
The number of bankrupt firms in the fiscal year to March 31 showed the first year-on-year increase in two years, topping 18,000 for the first time in 15 years, Teikoku Databank said in a report covering bankruptcies with debts of 10 million yen or more.
The number of bankruptcy cases is the third-largest in the postwar period, the institute said, adding that the amount of total liabilities topped the 25 trillion yen mark for the first time.