Financial affairs minister Hakuo Yanagisawa on Wednesday told IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler that Japan will accept an investigation into its financial sector.
Emerging from a meeting here with Koehler, Yanagisawa told reporters that the Financial Services Agency will hold working-level talks with the International Monetary Fund on when and how to conduct the investigation, known as the Financial Sector Assessment Program.
The assessment program, introduced jointly by the IMF and World Bank in 1999 following the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, is intended to identify the strengths and vulnerabilities of a country's financial system.
Yanagisawa said the FSA lacks sufficient manpower to handle the proposed investigation, making it necessary for the agency to first discuss the details of the probe with the IMF on a working level.