The Diet must pass a nuclear compensation bill within two months before banks including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. offer new loans to the owner of the radiation-spewing Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant, the nation's banking lobby said.
Passage of the bill, along with government loan guarantees, is a prerequisite for banks to provide credit to Tokyo Electric Power Co., said Katsunori Nagayasu, head of the Japanese Bankers Association. The utility is unlikely to suffer a shortage of funds in the year through March, given that it received emergency loans after the record earthquake, he said.
Opposition parties have said Prime Minister Naoto Kan's proposed law, which aims to restructure the utility and secure funds for compensation to be paid to victims of the nuclear disaster, needs amendment. Nagayasu is also president of Mitsubishi UFJ, one of the Japanese banks that lent about ¥2 trillion to Tepco after the March 11 quake and tsunami damaged its nuclear plant.