Progress of Informationalization and the Japanese Financial System

本文的研究成果包括以下四个方面：1.通过对信息在金融市场中作用的理论分析，我们发现了以下事实。现有的金融体系和市场、海关都是低成本手段，以避免信息不对称造成的逆向选择。银行的独特性源于银行贷款是应对借款人现金流不确定性的一种低成本手段。抵押品是银行节约信息生产成本的重要手段。许多日本银行并不是通过抵押品降低信用风险来提供信息的。由于它是一种容易降低风险的方法，非银行企业很容易模仿它的放贷行为，银行很可能会失去竞争力。银行信息生产的成本和能力影响货币政策的有效性。日本金融市场的许多特征本质上源于日本维护金融稳定的制度特征。其中一些可归因于日本工业的高度竞争性。因此，它们中的一些将随着放松管制的进程而消失，但一些不会。通过对银行抵押品行为和信息生产行为的实证分析，验证了本文的理论分析假设。我们还发现，金融制度的变化遵循着金融市场的实际变化。因此，我们对日本金融体系未来的变化方向有了一个比较清晰的视角。信息化并不一定意味着市场信息效率的提高。当我们改变金融体系时，重要的是制定一个可以避免时间不一致问题的计划。会议就日本金融市场放松管制的进程提出了具体建议。

The result of our research consists of the following four categories ;1. Through the theoretical analysis on the role of information in the financial market, we found the following facts. The existing financial system and market, customs are low-cost means in order to avoid the adverse selection caused by the asymmetry of information. The uniqueness of banks stems from the fact that the bank loan is a low-cost means to cope with the uncertainty of cash flow of borrowers. Collateral is a very important means to save the cost of information production by banks. Many Japanese banks does not produce information by reducing their credit risk by collateral. Since it is a easy method to reduce the risk, non-bank firms can easily imitate its lending behavior and banks may well lose its competitiveness. The cost and the capacity of information production by banks affect the effectiveness of the monetary policy.2. Many characteristics of the Japanese financial market are derived essentially from the characteristics of the Japanese system of maintaining the financial stability. Some of them are attributable to the highly competitive nature of the Japanese industries. Thus, some of them will disappear with the progress of deregulation, but some will not.3. Through the empirical analysis of bank behavior regarding collateral and information production, our hypothesis of theoretical analysis are positively confirmed. We also found that the change of the financial system follows behaind the actual change in the financial market. Thus we obtained a fairly clear perspective of the direction of the future change of the Japanese financial system. The informationalization does not necessarily means the increased market informational efficiency.4. When we change the financial system, it is important to make a plan that can avoid the problem of time-inconsistency. A concrete proposal was made about the process of deregulation of the Japanese financial market.