This timely book provides a comprehensive analysis of the post-war evolution of financial markets and financial regulation in Japan, with special emphasis being placed on the period since 1975.Max Hall, a leading specialist in financial regulation, provides a full and detailed coverage of the causes and nature of the recent liberalization of financial markets adopted in Japan as well as its consequences for public policy. He also examines the recent reforms of Japan's central bank, the Bank of Japan, and offers an in-depth discussion of the current weaknesses of the Japanese banking sector. By providing a critical overview of the local financial system and detailed discussion of the evolution of financial markets in Japan, the book sheds new light on the institutional problems at the heart of the current crisis. The politics, as well as the economics, of the financial liberation programme are scrutinised to provide a comprehensive analysis of financial reform.