Sluggish economic activity forced 14 listed companies to go bust in 2001, with their combined liabilities amounting to a postwar record 2.88 trillion yen, according to Teikoku Databank Ltd.
The amount was an increase of more than 200 billion yen from the previous year, and the number of bankruptcies matched the postwar record set in 1997, the credit research agency said.
The increase in bankruptcies reflects banks' stepped-up disposal of bad loans, which often means the discontinuation of financial support for heavily indebted companies.
The introduction of limited deposit insurance this April, in which only up to 10 million yen per depositor will be guaranteed in the event of a bank failure, and declining banking stock prices have pressured banks to improve their balance sheets to restore depositors' trust.
The prospect of the limited deposit protection is causing jitters among people who have their money deposited at relatively weak banks.
In November, four listed firms collapsed, the largest number for a single month in the postwar period, Teikoku Data said Monday.
Niigata Engineering Co., which failed in November with liabilities of 227 billion yen, was the largest bankruptcy of a Japanese manufacturer since the war.
Another major failure was that of Taisei Fire & Marine Insurance Co., which went under with 413.1 billion yen in liabilities, hit by massive insurance payments from the Sept. 11 attacks. Contractor Aoki Corp. went under in December with consolidated liabilities of 522 billion yen and retailer Mycal Corp. left liabilities of 1.39 trillion yen in September.
"As a large number of companies are on the brink of failure in various industries, the weeding-out of companies will increase from now on," a Teikoku official said.