O Kobayashi was stunned last year when he found that his mortgage applications had been rejected by two banks.
The 35-year-old had quit a Japanese bank where he had worked for 10 years, obtained an MBA from an Ivy League business school and started working at the financial unit of Connecticut-based General Electric Co. before returning to Japan.
Despite his solid career and no record of debts, the two Japanese banks turned him down because he had changed jobs during the year before he applied for the loans.