There were 19,458 corporate bankruptcies in 2002, the second-highest figure in the postwar period, Teikoku Databank Ltd. said Monday.

The result was up 0.1 percent from the preceding year for the third straight rise, the credit research agency said, and it was highest number of failures for any year since the early 1990s downfall of the asset-inflated bubble economy.

A postwar record of 20,841 corporate bankruptcies was set in 1984.