Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday rejected calls from senior legislators and bankers to postpone plans to cap deposit guarantees at failed banks, scheduled to take effect April 1.
Currently, demand deposits are fully guaranteed, a situation some economists say allows the decrepit banking system to put off restructuring.
Koizumi told reporters that he had advised Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa in the morning that he has no intention of scuttling the launch of the cap, which will limit refunds to 10 million yen per depositor in the event a bank collapses.