Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said Friday he expects the Japan Bankers Association and the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) to devise guidelines on debt waivers to corporate borrowers by the end of June.
"It's not up to the government to do it, but I would be grateful if they draw up the guidelines by the end of June," Yanagisawa said.
An emergency economic package unveiled in April calls for banking and business circles to draft guidelines on debt waivers between lenders and corporate borrowers in order to promote the disposal of bad loans held by banks.
But the JBA and Keidanren have been slow in mapping out any guidelines, citing technical difficulties.
The government is slated to hammer out details of a series of measures proposed under the emergency economic package by the end of June.
The disposal of bad loans is one of the key pillars of the package with a two-year deadline having been stipulated for major Japanese banks to take care of this process.
As of Sept. 30, Japan's 16 major banks held loans totaling 12.7 trillion yen to borrowers considered at risk of collapse or already under legal liquidation.