The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) on Thursday denied a report in The Times of London that paraphrases the group's chairman as predicting at least one of Japan's top four banks will probably be nationalized next month.
"It is not factual to say that Chairman (Hiroshi) Okuda made such a remark," Nippon Keidanren said in a statement. "We have already lodged a protest with The Times and requested that it kill the news story and publish a correction."
The Times reported that Okuda, concurrently chairman of Toyota Motor Corp., said Wednesday that the nationalization will probably be precipitated by a bankruptcy of one of Japan's 30 most indebted companies before the end of the year.